For Reference
WOT TO BE TAKEN FROM THIS ROOM
SERIAL 37E.E1B K51 v.B
ThR Ki nriRrgart.Rn magaT-inR
BORROWER'S NAME
fJL:iMnL ^JVll.^lo ksi v.b
The Kindergarten magazine
Nalional-Louis UnivrrRity
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
EVANSTON CAMPUS
2840 Sheridan Road
Evanston, Illinois 60201
ILDS-NSLS
THE
Kindergarten Magazine,
MONTHLY TEXT BOOK OF
THE NEW EDUCATION.
Vol. Vl.-September, 1893-June, 1894.
1893-4
Kindergarten Literature Co.
Chicago.
t^OLLEGf Of
LipRARY
Copyright, iSqs
KINDERGARTEN LITERATURE CO.
Chicago.
53329
Printed and Bound at the Pestalozzi-Froebel Press, Chicag'o.
INDEX TO VOL. VI
FRONTISPIECES.
" Garden and Child Culture " September, i8g3
The Gleaners Millet October, 1893
" The Shepherdess " J. F. Millet November, 1893
The Child Jesus and St. John Murillo December, 1893
Madonna and Child Gabriel Max January, 1894
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (portrait) February, i8q4
Hans Christian Andersen. . .yi//^r 6'/a/«t' /'J/ /. (9^/rr/ March, 1894
Froebel's Monument April, 1894
Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus Medallion From exhibit
at World's Fair May, 1 894
Play of the Birds June-July, 1894
INDEX TO MAGAZINE.
PAGE
A History of the Tonic Sol-fa System Einjua A. Lord 177
A Nature Seer Rebecca Pcrley Reed 768
A Plea for Greater Knowledge of the Child Grace ^l. IVood 612
Art in Early E !ucation Mary Dana Hicks 589
Astronomy for Children Mary Proctor 1 7
A Tribute.— Poem Agnes M. Fox 605
A Week with Goethe -iinalie Hofcr 679
Between the Lines of the Report of the Committee of Ten Jo-
sephinc C. Locke 773
Books and Periodicals 156, 244, 346, 430, 508, 585, 665, 743, 847
Congress Notes 31
Culture, Character, and Conduct 183
Delsarte Interpreted by One of his Disciples. ...Mari Ruef LLofer 361
Directing the Self-activity of the Child. .Hannah Jo/mson Carter 77
Early Education through Symbols Marion Foster Washbiirtie
I 351
n 448
Editorial Notes 33, 113, ig8, 290, 381, 459, 536, 614, 694, 784
Everyday Practice Department (See special index), 35, 115, 200,
293. 383- 462, 539, 617, 698, 787
Exhibit of the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus of Berlin 9
INDEX TO VOL. VI.
PAGE
Field Notes 7i. 159- 246, 339- 422, 497, 577, 655, 733, 827
Foretastes of Winter.-- Poem [Seit'cit-d) 275
Garden of the Pestalozzi-Froebel House Elizabeth Harrison 770
Good Night.— Poem Enii/y Huntington Miller 678
Hans Christian Andersen and the Children Nico Bech-Meycr 513
Henrietta Goldschmidt on "The Ethical Influence of Women in
Education " 607
How can We Acquire a Better Appreciation for True Art?
Walter S. Perry
I 688
11 758
How Froebel Influenced the Character of George Ebers ig4
How shall the Primary School be Modified?. . .R. Pickman Matin 167
International Congresses of Education 21
International Kindergarten Union i
Kindergarten as a Preparation for Right Living
Frau Henrietta Schrader
I 435
n 519
Kindergarten Section of the International Educational Congress.. gg
Kindergartners in Congress Assembled 24
Lessons L arned from the Columbian School Exhibits. . . .Amalie
Hofer 286
Literary Notes 70
Mothers' Department (See special index), 60, 144, 232, 325, 408,
485, 562, 643, 721, 816
Obstacles to Kindergarten Progress in Large Cities Eliza A.
Blakcr 357
Pestalozzian Literature in America Will S. Monroe 673
Pestalozzi's Chief Lesson to Educators Elizabeth Harrison 6j7
Place and Value of Song in the Kindergarten Constanee
Mackenzie 367
Publishers' Notes 76, 165, 254, 349, 432, 510, 588, 669, 747, 84g
Relation of the Kindergarten to the Public School System. .James
L. Htcghes 74g
Relation of the Kindergarten to the Sunday School Lucy
Wheelock '. 173
Resolutions Presented before the World's Congress Auxiliaries.. .
Ida M. Condit 764
Sloyd for Elementary Schools as Contrasted with the Russian
System of Manual Training Gustaf Larsson 92
Some Children's Books that have stood the Test of Thirty Years. .
Margaret Andrews A llett 87
Some Tendencies of the American Child. . . .Annie Branson King 271
St. Louis Kindergartens and Schools Amalie Hofer 373
INDEX TO VOL. VI.
PAGE
Parents, Instruct Yourselves as to Reliable Educational Methods
A.H.P 570
Pictures in the Fire. — Poem '. Sopha S. Bixby 647
Practical Suggestions for Home Teaching K. B. 730
Proper Chairs for Schoolroom L. S. F. 650
Reasons Why Children are not Sent to Kindergarten B. H. 239
Scissors, and How to Use Them H. B. 60
Service Uncounted A. H. 417
Should Santa Claus be Banished from Our Homes? Ida S.
Harringto7i 332
Some Lessons from Mother Nature M. H. Jennings 237
The Buttercup Meadow.— Poem Emma L. Clapp 62
The Children's Garden. — Poem Annie C. Scott 155
The Child's Questions Emily Huntington Miller 652
The Dark. — Poem Forrest Crissey 495
The Five Little Sheep Virgitiia B. Jacobs 576
The Gift. — Poem Helen Douglas Saxe 574
The Kindergarten for the Mother Nellie Nelson Amsden 330
The Lesson of the Winter Boughs JM. H. J. 336
The Mountain Maple Leaf's Story A Bealert 415
The Old-fashioned Child 67
The Philosophy of the Nursery Anna N.
Kendall 325, 408, 485, 643, 816
The Play of the Pigeon M.H. J. 242
The Sandman. — Poem Hal Owen 68
The World's Regeneration hrough the Mother. . .Louis H. Allen 723
To Parents, Grandparents, Nurses, and Teachers. .A. N. Kettdall 721
Topics for Mothers' Meetings H. M. 495
Unmeasured Results Dora H. J. Ttmier 148
What about Baby's Birthday? 144
What Books will Help 241
What the Child-Garden Brings to the Home 154
Work is Worship A. H. 153
Digitized by tlie Internet Arcliive
in 2010 with funding from
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INDEX TO VOL. VI.
PAGE
A Little Talk about Taxation Nellie Nelson Amsden 235
A Mother Inquires about Kindergarten Materials M. E. L. 6g
An Active Child S. S. E. 650
A New Year's Motto.— Poem 494
An. Open Letter Mrs. L. B. Skitine?- 825
A Plea for Children's Pets Katherine Beebc 566
A Plea for Originality .■ Nellie Nelson Amsdeii 648
A Reason for the Faith Katherine Beebe 818
A Slumber-time Song. — Poem E. Addie Heath 337
A Spirited Mothers' Meeting L. IV.T. 402
Ball Song for the Babies Martha L. Sanford 65 1
Child Training vers^is Tammg Wilder Grahamc 146
Christmas Night (with music) 338
Conference over Home Problems Frances E. Neimton 328
Conferences over Home Matters Frances E. Newton 562
Discovered, the Fountain of Perpetual Youth Barretta Broiun 410
Doll's Cradle Song From the German of Carl Reinecke 492
Do We Need the Parents' Help? Laura Pixley, in ''Western
School Journal" 645
Extract from "The True Education and the False" William
Ordivay Partridge, in ''A rena " 487
Fairy June.— Poem Annie McMullen 823
Finger Game.— Poem Hal Owen 68
Five Little Boys.— Play with Baby's Toes Rose
Hartwick Thorpe 496
Florine's Visit to Kindergarten Alys Day 63
Good Night.— Poem M.H.J. 243
Helping Santa Claus Hal Owen 418
Henry's W. odpecker Susan P. Clement 1 50
How Much the Kindergarten does for Mothers A Chicago
Mother 67
How the Kindergarten is Misu derstood S. C. V. 574
How to See the Fair with the Children Elizabeth Harrison 232
How 10 Select Schools to Fit the Children {Hoine Companion) 490
Jake's Work and Play Norma B. Allen, Cora M. Allen 725
Kindergarten and Public School — Extract from a Letter. ..G. V.
Buchanan 494
Kmdergarten Literature {Flleanor Kirk's Idea) 653
Kindergarten Spirit in the Home and School C. G. Swingle 723
Little Finger-eyes Hal Owen 572
Mothers' Study Classes: Kmdcrgartners must Meet the Demand. 568
Named at the Creche 152
Notes from our Mothers' Parliament 149
On.- Hour of Play.— Poem Grace Faye Kcon 421
Our Home Club Mrs. S. B. 824
INDEX TO VOL. VI.
PAGE
Some Interesting Nature Transformations A. H. 387
Some Plant Babies Ella F. Mosby 630
Some Points on the Daily Program 123
Song for Opening Gift Boxes Esther Gill Jackson 221
Song of the Sewing Machine (with music). ...From "Song Stories
for the Kindergarten " 407
Story of Siegfried Maude Menefee 40
Story of the St. James Shell 47
Supplementary Reading Books B. H. 217
Supplies and Materials 788
Telling Star Stories to Kindergarten Children Mary Proctor 628
The Broken Ring. — A Criticism Mary H. Peabody 471
The Cube, the Cylinder, and the Sphere Kate Stearns 632
The Dandelion.— A Nature Study Mrs. S. O. Spencer 714
The Dandelion. — Poem Grace E. Loring 44
The Fairy (with music) Sopha S. Bixby 50
The Froebel Monument at Schweina 622 /
The Giant Sun Mary Proctor 1 27
The Goblins in Starland Mary Proctor 707 ^^'
The Object, Aim, and Instruments of the Kindergarten Aurie
E. Bloss 701
The Reason Why [St. Nicholas) 48
The Roller — Free Play J. A. K. 719
The Snowflakes.— Poem S.J. Mulford 316 '
The Star Folk. — Poem Lesley Glendower Peabody 386
The Three Weavers. — Poem Caroline L. Dinzey 642
The Ugly Duckling Adapted fi-om Hans Christian Andersen 544
The Worcester School Experiment [Harper's Magazine) 131
Things Seen and Heard among the Kindergarten Exhibits. .A.H. 307
Things to Determine in Your Summer Study 804
Tonic Sol-fa System Emma A. Lord, 467, 555, 709, 789
Typical Program Applied to the Daily Vicissitude Laura
P. Charles 299, 396, 479, 552, 632
Twenty Books for the Kindergartner's Library 641
What has the World's Fair Done for Our Music? A Kiiider-
gartner 135
What the Fifth Gift Tells Us Clara B. Rogers 640
What to Read and What not to Reaa A.H. 805
Wool and Leather versus Child Growth Elizabeth Harrison 209
World's Fair Treasures for the Schools 796
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT.
A Garden.— Poem Esther Gill Jacksoji 826
A Little More about Questions Nellie Nelson Amsden 728
INDEX TO VOL. VI.
PAGE
Development of the Spirit of Prayer Antoinette Choate 124
Elementary Science Lesson Frederica Beard 53
English Lullaby. — Poem [Selected) 1 26
Every Teacher a Musician 803
Finger Play of the Flowers Catherine Watkins 798
First-gift Song and Game Cornelia Fulton Crary 220
For Columbus' Birthday (Song, " Long Time Ago") F. R. G. 137
Fourth-of-July Game Mary E. Sly 796
Free-hand Paper Cutting .5". T. AI. 219
Froebel Birthday Lines J/. E. P. 623
General Talks in the Kindergarten Bertha Savage 38
Geography and Arithmetic as They are Taught O. T. Bright 806
Hans Christian Andersen's Birthday A. H. 542
How a Kindergarten was Organized Minnie M. Glidden 55
How the Frost Man Works. — Poem Haiinah Gould 406
How the Milkweed Took Wings Margaret Dewey 140
How to Apply the Story of Siegfried A. H. 44
How to Assume Individual Responsibility 709
How to Study Froebel's " Mutter und Kose-Lieder" Anialie
Hofer 35. J-i^pSOO, 293, 383.^162, 539, 618, 698, 804
How to Study Sea Life r^. Jane S. M. 46
Important Items 561
Kindergarten Christmas Festival 311
Kindergartners, Notice 799
Learning to Read Thoughts, not Words 706
Mr. Snider's Interpretation of Froebel's Mother-Play Book
Elizabeth Harrison 807
Music, Negatively and Positively Considered. . .^llice H. Putnam 226
Old Danish Rhymes Nico Bech-Meyer 717
Open Questions Answered by the Editor 390
Our Favorite Stories H. B. 548
Pestalozzian Methods in England and America 716
Play in the Kindergarten Grace A. Wood 401
Primary Language and Form Study M. Helen Jennings 475
Public School Kindergartens of Superior, Wis., no Expe iment. . . 212
Pure Music (with music) Calvin B. Cady 138
Questions Asked by our Correspondents 801
Quiet Song for the Hands V. B. J. 717
Reconstruction of the Grammar-school Curriculum 627
Rhyme for Opening the Third-gift Boxes C. R. W. 800
Round-table Chat among Kindergartners C. M. P. H., 211, 323
Second-gift Play C. S. N. 478
Some Criticisms of a Pioneer Worker Beta 811
Some Homely Questions 403
Some Homely Questions Answered A. H. Wardle 470
INDEX TO VOL. VI.
PAGE
The Children's PaviHon.— Poem Emily Hu7itington Miller 269
The Kindergarten and the Boston Drawing Discussion 526
The Kindergarten at the Columbian Exposition. . . . Amalie Hofer 186
The Mother Watching the Development of her Child. — Poem
Emily HwitiMgton Miller 783
The Place of "Admiration, Hope, and Love" in Elementary Edu-
cation T. C. Horsfall 257
The Schools of Uruguay, South America igi
The Shoemaker's Barefooted Children Emilie Poulsson 276
The Summer-Child Questions. — Poem Andrea Hofer 1 11
The Whole Child Josephine C. Locke 102
Toledo Manual Trainmg School Mary E. Law 455
Welcome to Kindergartners of the International Congress. . .Ada
Marean Hughes 14
William L. Tomlins on Children and Music 441
INDEX OF EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
A Child's Questions. — Poem Juliette Pulver 224
A Comprehensive Program Mary Z. Lodor 205
A Letter from Peking, China 314
A Letter from Vancouver N. C. 718
An Easy Art Lesson John Ward Stimson 624
A New Kindergarten Song Collection Calvin B. Cady 222
A New School of Work — Tearing Jeatt Mac Arthur 639
Another Kindergarten Primary N. C. 216
An Outdoor School Z. S. Loveland 52
A Secularist Plea for Santa Claus H. E. O. Hcinemann 321
A Song to the Shellfish E. G. S. 49
Astronomy for Children Mary Proctor, 229, 317, 404, 559
A Swinging Song Alwin B. Jovenil 22 1
A Toast Millicent Olmsted 617
A Typical Program Sketched Laura P. Charles 1 19
Autumn Leaves. — Poem Emma Lee Benedict 140
A Valentine. — Poem Cornelia Ftilton Crary 478
Bible Texts and Sequences in the Kmdergarten 134
Books that Tell of Starland Mary Proctor 797
Bye Baby Bye (with music) From "Song Stories for the Kinder-
garten' fc. 225
Can You Answer these Candul Questions? 549
Character as Applied to Musical Sounds Emma A. Lord 296
Character as Applied to Musical Sounds in the Tonic Sol-fa Sys-
tem Emma A . Lord 393
Child and Thirsty Flowers Bertha Pay7ie 220
Criticism and Remedy 794
GARDEN AND CHILD CULTURE.'
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VL— SEPTEMBER, iSgj.—No. i.
THE INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION.
(The following is an abridgment of the official report rendered by
Miss Sarah Stewart, chairman of the executive committee, to the Con-
gress Department of the International Kindergarten Union. It is not
amiss to say that this exposition of an ideal for an association voices the
heretofore unexpressed wishes of the many individuals who go to make
it up.)
The International Kindergarten Union is now one year
old. It seems fitting that a statement be made of its aims
and purposes, its growth, and its prospects for the future.
It was organized at Saratoga, 1892, in the interests of con-
certed action among the friends of the Kindergarten cause.
As a beginning, four distinct aims were stated:
1. To gather and disseminate knowledge of the Kinder-
garten movement throughout the world;
2. To bring into active cooperation all Kindergarten in-
terests;
3. To promote the establishment of Kindergartens;
4. To elevate the standard of professional training of
the Kindergartner.
As stated in the preliminary circular —
The principles underlying the Kindergarten system are
the groundwork of modern primary education. An intelli-
gent interpretation of the philosophy and method is being
presented by many independent workers in various parts of
the world; something like a complete system of primary
education is being slowly evolved from the repeated experi-
ments of these investigators. Much of value to the world
is being lost from the lack of coordinated effort and some
common channel of communication.
2 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The International Kindergarten Union was formed to
meet this need. It seeks to unite in one stream the various
Kindergarten activities already existing. Its function is to
supplement, not to compete with, to coordinate, not to sup-
plant, the agencies which are already at work. It combines
the advantages of central council and suggestion with local
independence and control. Its mission is to collect, collate,
and disseminate the valuable knowledge already attained,
and to inspire the greater and more intelligent efforts in the
future. It falls naturally into the spirit and method of the
times, which is no longer that of isolated effort, but of con-
centrated harmonious action.
In most of the states the Kindergartens are outside of
the public school system, in the hands of private societies.
It is obvious that an International Kindergarten Union can
deal only with large units. It is hoped that all of the Kin-
dergarten societies in each state, whether public or private,
will unite to form one state organization for representation
in the International Kindergarten Union. The great ad-
vance which has been made in the growth of Kindergartens
in the recent past makes it hopeful that the time is near
when there will be no state without such an organization.
The International Kindergarten Union is pledged to
promote such organizations, and to the establishment of
Kindergartens. It invites cooperation from public and pri-
vate schools, churches, and benevolent societies, of every
kind and grade, which have for their object the educational
interests of little children.
The establishment of a high standard of training for the
office of Kindergartner has long been felt to be a necessity
by those most intimately connected with the work. It is of
first importance that some standard be reached that shall
direct the future action of training schools in the prepara-
tion of teachers. The time is past when "anybody can
teach little children." We are no longer in the experi-
mental stage. No position calls for more native ability and
thorough training. The Kindergartner must take her place
with other trained professional teachers, if she can hope to
INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION. 3
hold her place in the great army of educational progress;
she must be able to see that principles are more than
method, spirit more than form, and organic relations to
other departments of education of vital importance to suc-
cess in her own.
It will be the work of the International Kindergarten
Union to prepare an outline of study, to advise its adoption,
and to give aid and counsel whenever they are sought.
The executive committee includes the leading Kindergart-
ners of this country and of Europe. Their experience and
knowledge give ample security that wise counsel will be
given in all questions of importance to the cause.
The immediate aim of the International Kindergarten
Union for the coming year will be to prepare a fitting rep-
resentation of Kindergarten progress at the Columbian
Exposition at Chicago in 1893. This time will furnish an
occasion for an interchange of views and an organization of
forces for future growth unequaled in the history of the
world. An international congress is planned for this time,
in which will be discussed questions of vital importance to
the cause by the most eminent Kindergartners of the world.
Foreign correspondence is now being held to bring together
products of the system in countries much older than our
own. It is hoped that not only finished products may be
displayed, in well-graded sequence, but that practical illus-
trations of method may be given with the little children
present.
A provisional constitution was adopted, the terms of
which were very simple and very elastic. (See distributed
copies.)
Each local center retains complete autonomy, and con-
tinues the activities which were begun before joining the
general union.
So much for what was hoped to be done. Allow me to
make a brief review of what has been done. It was early
discovered that certain important changes must be made in
membership and in dues. At a meeting of the executive
board, held in Chicago in December, it was decided to re-
4 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
organize only cities as members in the International Kin-
dergarten Union, with the exception of the original charter
members, and that dues for membership should be fixed as
follows:
Five dollars for small societies under the number twenty-
five;
Twenty-five dollars for large societies over the number
twenty-five.
At the last meeting of the executive board in April it
was decided to recommend that a change be made and
read. Each city branch shall pay into the general treasury
one-third of its membership dues. This was considered to
be a more equitable adjustment of dues between the large
and small cities.
Sixteen of the leading cities in the United States have
joined the union, and two others are considering the matter.
This means that all the Kindergarten societies in each city
have united to form a membership in the International Kin-
dergarten Union.
The cities are the following: Boston, Philadelphia, Wash-
ington ("not yet" New Britain, Conn.; New York), Provi-
dence, Wilmington, Albany, Buffalo, Chicago, Indianapolis,
Cincinnati, Toledo, Cleveland. St. Louis, Des Moines, San
Francisco, Smyrna (Turkey). These are called city
branches of the I. K. U.
Indications are given that foreign countries will also
join the union. Most of them have responded promptly to
the invitation to give reports of Kindergarten progress in
their countries, and have expressed hearty sympathy with
the movement.
Each city branch has its own constitution, carries on its
own line of activities, each differing in some particular from
every other, and yet all uniting to help secure the broad
general aims embodied in our constitution.
A long stride has been made toward reaching a standard
which can be indorsed by the International Union for the
training of Kindergartners. This has been done by calling
for reports of work which is already being carried on in
INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION. 5
Kindergarten training schools in this country and in Eu-
rope. It was thought best to find out first what was being
done, and to seek some common ground upon which to
make a broader and higher standard.
The union has helped materially in aid and counsel in
arranging an exhibition of Kindergarten work for the
World's Fair. It has not made an especial exhibit of its
own, but has cooperated with the other authorities in cities
of which it forms a part. In October, 1892, the International
Kindergarten Union, by virtue of its already national impor-
tance, if not of size, was invited to become a member of the
National Council of Women. The executive committee,
having full sympathy with the objects as set forth in their
constitution, decided promptly to accept the invitation, and
we feel today honorecj by the privilege of standing side by
side with the members of this great army and working with
them toward the same ends, although by different means.
The International Kindergarten Union is on a sound
financial basis. The rare spectacle is presented of a year-
old organization having paid all its debts and found the
surplus figures on the credit side of the balance sheet; but
perhaps the most important thing of all that it has done is
to find out the immensity of the work and the many things
which remain to be done.
"We are confronted not by a theory but by a situation,"
Among others we are asked to answer the question. What is
the advantage of an I. K. U.? Or to put it in the words
which I overheard from one of the members of our branch,
"What am I going to get for my dollar?" Let me attempt
to sketch briefly what I think one will get for her dollar;
but first let me say, the same arguments which can be urged
for organization for any purpose can be urged with equal
force for organized effort among Kindergartners. The
great word of the day is organization, and the reason for
this is, because the world has discovered that more can be
done through combined action than through isolated effort.
Moreover, it is beginning to discover that more can be done
through ^(?-ordination than through .yz^^-ordination. The
6 • THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
day of the thousand-legged (and handed) monster with one
head is drawing near its close. The day of many local cen-
ters combining to delegate direction to a strong central body,
begins to dawn. The time is near when all the factors in
the world forces are to be counted, and not, as now, when
the many serve as ciphers to give distinction and value to
the unit one. The unity of the universe is made, not by
ignoring, but by counting the factors which go to make it
up, and we are beginning to learn that we must build on the
same foundations, and shape our work accordingly.
But in answer to the question of my timid, short-sighted
little friend, as it is no doubt a question that hundreds are
asking all over this land, and will continue to ask, — Ciii
bono? — what good, for the individual, is the old, old ques-
tion?
First, then, it is a saving in the three primal values, —
energy, time, and money (which represents the first two).
By frequent and complete circulation of the work of each
branch of the union, each gains from the experience of all.
Each center is a new field of experiment and discovery.
That which is of value can be published for a thousand
almost as easily as for one. Each valuable experience in
one branch becomes an inspiration and incentive to renewed
efforts in another. An enthusiasm is created which carries
the whole body much farther than isolated action ever can-
There is strength in numbers. The moral sentiment of a
multitude is infinitely more compelling than the opinions
of one. It inspires the same relative emotion that comes
from being a member of a kingdom rather than a tribe. It
is the man with a country and a cause, rather than one who
is in doubt as to whether life is worth living, because he is
alone and has no vital interests. Obstacles and difficulties
melt away before a multitude, that pile up and magnify be-
fore a few; indeed they never arise. The world instinctively
makes way for a large body, and does not so easily question
its prerogatives. Each, then, partakes of the honor and
dignity of the whole. Who today does not feel a thrill of
almost divine power from joining hands with this body of
INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN UNION. /
noble women, which encircles -the world in its beneficent
grasp? In being a member of the International Kindergar-
ten Union one stands shoulder to shoulder with an army
which is moving onward with single aim, moving by the
compelling sound of the "cry of the children" for love and
life and light.
Again, it meets a need in woman's education which is
paramount today, which is a training in organization, and
power to act together. By meeting for united action in the
smaller centers for immediate ends, each will learn to co-
operate with her peers and be led gradually, by the most
potent of all methods — experience — to the broader con-
ception of the larger well-being, and finally, let us hope, to
the highest conception of all the universal good. By the
very force of woman's life her vision is limited to the near
necessities which press so heavily upon her; but the day is
at hand when from her isolated position in the family and
the school she is called to take also the view which links
her with others in working for the general good. What bet-
ter way for a Kindergartner to learn this all-important les-
son, than to begin where she is, with the vital interest which
she has most at heart, and organized to secure their success?
This organized effort also may bring her in touch with the
choicest literature of her profession. It is one of the chief
aims of the I. K. U. to select, out of the whole field of liter-
ature, that which will bear most directly upon her pro-
fession, and mark out courses of reading for general culture.
It is at this point that the selective intelligence of the whole
counts for the most for the individual. No one has time to
read even a tithe of the mass of literature which is put forth
upon the subject. We want to make a journal of journals,
which will collect and disseminate the products of the best
thinking of the world in the direction of the child's educa-
tion, and make it possible for every mother, Kindergartner,
and teacher to have this journal for one dollar.
I consider it significant of future growth and power that
the International Kindergarten Union was organized in this
Columbian year. At this time, when all the nations of the
8 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
earth are uniting to celebrate the most important event in
history, it seems eminently fitting that those to whom are
committed the interests upon which the greatness of nations
most depends, should "form a more perfect union" for se-
curing the highest development of the new education. In
some sense, the I. K. U. may be considered symbolic of the
future brotherhood of man. As it is itself an offshoot of
the great world spirit in that direction, so it may be consid-
ered a type of the organizations for the advance which the
next four hundred years will bring to perfection. At least
let us hope that our united efforts may help swell the tidal
wave which seems setting in that direction, and that it may
be said of us, that we have done what we could!
THE EXHIBIT OF THE PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL
HAUS OF BERLIN.
IN the northeast corner of the mammoth Manufactures
Building, among the exhibits of fine papers, stained
glass, and other liberal arts, stands an obelisk, to
typify the efforts and aspirations of the Pestalozzi-
Froebel Haus of Berlin. The triangular pyramid rises to a
good height from a massive pedestal, which encases under
glass covers the exhibit of hand work done by the student-
teachers and children of the institution, as well as the books
from the library, and a series of most attractive drawings
representing the actual daily life of the inmates. In the
center of the front panel are the bronze-relief portraits of
Pestalozzi and Froebel, giving, as it were, the stamp to the
exhibit. A neat placard reads as follows: "Berlin society
for the education of the people, under the patronage of her
Majesty the Empress Frederick, — the Pestalozzi-Froebel
Haus." Under this society the exhibit was arranged and set
forth for public view in Berlin, in the Art Industrial Insti-
tute, a week prior to its transportation across the water to
Chicago. While still there it attracted great attention
among edrxators, as well as prominent persons whose inter-
est and influence have been only too long withheld from
this work.
The entire exhibit is under the direction of Fraulein
Annetta Hamminck-Schepel, vho, together with Frau Schra-
der, of Berlin, has been the presiding genius of the Pesta-
lozzi-Froebel Haus for seventeen years. The work has
grown from small beginnings and under many discourage-
ments, until it is today recognized as a permanent and im-
portant factor in the educational as well as social progress
of the continent. Foreigners of every land are drawn to
Berlin to investigate and acquire the pedagogics of this
"educational home," — such a one as Pestalozzi and Froebel
aimed to establish.
10 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
It is of the greatest import to the revival of natural
methods in America that this complete exposition of the
work, supplemented by the personal attention of Fraulein
Schepel, may be viewed and studied at this World's Fair.
The work of this Berlin society branches into many chan-
nels, and fills the places of our many specific institutions
under one direction. It includes the Volks-Kindergarten,
corresponding to our Free Kindergartens, as well as the
preliminary and elementary classes for children just passing
beyond the Kindergarten; also industrial schools for boys
and girls, classes in domestic economy, training school of
Kindergartners, nurses, and governesses, a day nursery with
meals for children, and free baths for the poor children.
The Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus is the concentric point
from which all these activities emanate. It is situated at i6
Steinmetz street, in the midst of the working classes of Ber-
lin, and though not a spacious building, its influence is far
reaching. It houses daily some two hundred children left
for the day, and has an annual enrollment of eighty or more
student-teachers in normal training. There are in charge
of this family (for the atmosphere of the home and family
is ever maintained) twenty directors and special instructors.
We asked of Fraulein Schepel: "What is the keynote,
the central motive of your institution?" She replied: " Its
objective point is to elevate the people by right education.
The means to this end is emphatically to develop the indi-
vidual through doing. By 'doing' is always implied the sat-
isfyi7ig of a yieed. We do not consider that doing which is
merely play in imitation of what is seen done by others.
Every deed must have a real motive and purpose. Therefore
we provide the full home environment, and create the fam-
ily of many members, each with his duty and his obligation,
as well as his blessed opportunity to develop by real doing.
The family is the highest sphere for activity. Activity is
educational only when placed in relationship to real life."
We find' this principle clearly worked out and illustrated
in the exhibit of the institution in the Manufactures Build-
ing. The triangular pyramid, adorned with garlands of
PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL HAUS EXHIBIT. II
flowers enwreathing the bronze bas-relief portraits of the
Emperor and Empress Frederick, is supported by the work
actually demonstrated in the institution. Ideals may be
substantiated by daily making them real. Placed about this
are four life-sized groups, also in bronze, of the children and
students at their work. The largest of these represents one
of the Kindergartners with two children looking at Froe-
bel's wonderful picture book, the "Mother-Play Songs."
Another group represents the domestic work of the chil-
dren, knitting and sewing, while the next brings in the ar-
tistic side of the work, in a boy and girl busily drawing and
sketching. Another of these we have reproduced for the
frontispiece of this number of the Kindergarten Maga-
zine. It represents a group of children with their garden
tools ready for actual work; not the work of an adult, but
such of the actual requirements of garden culture as their
strength and insight admit of. The Pestalozzi-Froebel
Haus is truly a Kindergarten in which nature is not given
to the children by proxy, but as she is when man unites his
efforts with hers to the profit of the family. A professional
lady horticulturist is in charge of the garden, under whose
direction four student-teachers each day take their turns to
do the regular work, whatever that may be, according to
the season and the progress of the work. Each of these
students has one or more children under her direction, and
in this wise the older and the little ones work together for
the common benefit of their common home. But it never
becomes drudgery, as every phase of the work is taken up
with a view to self-development and knowledge. Scientific
instruction, not excluding the soul or poetry of nature, ac-
companies it all, and the actual planting, caring for, and
harvesting brings the individual near to the heart of nature.
This practical experience of their surroundings forms the
basis for the more specific knowledge along school lines.
Hence this group of the gardeners typifies a large phase of
the work of the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus. Pestalozzi strove
to establish education in the home, and bring the school
back to its rightful place. Froebel systematized the occu-
12 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
pations of children into an educational sequence, and the
two are brought together here in this institution as nowhere
else in the world. "Where Froebel's mathematical and sci-
entific adaptations to the child's comprehension are applied,
without the only true corollary of the home and family at-
mosphere, we are still keeping school and not cultivating
humanity in the broader sense.
Among the drawings, charcoal and otherwise, by the
German artist, F. Grotemeyer, are such as tj^pify the daily
life at the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus- — the Christmas tree
being decked and beautified by the children and students,
and the distribution of gifts by the Empress Frederick and
her daughter. Again, there is a scene in the family nursery,
where the students are bathing and undressing the little
ones, then putting them down for the daily nap.
It is not a great dormitory with its uniform beds, nor is
it a scene of wholesale bathing, such as institutional life too
often provides; but it is a quiet, cozy room, with the hand
tub and the student-mothers to provide the true homelike
atmosphere.
A scene in the class room has this motto in German:
"Wouldst thou leach, first learn." The normal students
must understand and be able to do any and all domestic
work which goes to make up the atmosphere of home,
wherever little children may grow up. This sentiment, also
from Froebel. accompanies the pictured domestic occupa-
tions: "Home labors open and widen all the possibilities
and powers which are essential to the fulfillment of human
existence."
Everywhere one reads between the lines of this exhibit,
that actual daily life, with its infinite daily opportunities
and experiences, is the goal of education; to fit a child for
that which is about him, not for some far future special en-
vironment which overfond parents may dream of for him.
Another set of pictures illustrates the joy and gladness at-
tendant upon such a natural life. The line of Jean Paul is
given, which we transfer from the German, "Joy and hap-
piness make up that heaven under which all things thrive."
PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL HAUS EXHIBIT. I3
The group of many children wait in the doorway ready for
home after a busy, glad day, with this title to the picture:
"A happy heart — A sunny world."
While this institution honors domestic economy, — knit-
ting, mending, and the crude hand work of little children, —
it is honoring the great God over all, by declaring the unity
of life and the brotherhood of man through actual service
one for the other. The children are taught of the cow as
well as the birds, and are led to see that man's activity,
whether in the humblest or the highest sphere, is counted
of value by the love which prompts him.
Through the favor of Fraulein Schepel, we translate the
following paragraph from a recent writing of Frau Schrader,
in which she expresses her thought clearly and strongly:
"The majority of Kindergarten normal schools see in
the Kindergartens merely a preliminary to school life, while
Froebel would have the children prepared for life itself.
The youngest should be led through the gentle beginnings
of every phase of life, each according to his strength, and
therein find opportunity to prove all things. Therefore the
Kindergarten is not merely a matter of weaving, folding,
building, or tone-study, considered as the beginnings of in-
dustry, art, and science, but high above all these the child
should be taught of the beginnings of a noble social struc-
ture, of the ethical relations of man to his fellow man. How
can this be experieticed \xn\tss the child, through his own liv-
ing and doing, learns to shape these relationships? What
environment is more simple than that of the reciprocal life
of the family? The activities arising from home relation-
ships, put to the service of education, will reach far down
into all social conditions."
WELCOME TO THE KINDERGARTNERS OF THE
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS.
G> than half a century ago the name of the great
lostle of the "new education" — which name today
we honor as that of the prophet of a spiritual free-
dom which we have at least begun to realize — was
one of derision. The old man who played with the little
children was by the villagers called "the old fool." Today
one of the most important of the many departments of this
World's Educational Congress is that of the conference of
the followers of Froebel. We in this New World have seen
the light of that "star in the East," and have followed rever-
ently and earnestly to the birthplace of that new revelation
of divine truth, — a divine childhood, — and seek for more
light and clearer insight. Today we hold out both hands in
welcome to all who gather here. It is a great joy to take
the hand of those who have known the immediate followers
of the great apostle, those who have wandered through the
same paths in the fields, rested under the same skies, been
surrounded by the same associations and local experiences;
and we say to them, "Tell us of the everyday life and
words of the master, that we may feel more deeply the
inner life from which this great truth sprang into material
expression." To those who have come from across the sea,
who speak the same language as ourselves, as well as those
of other tongues, we extend the welcome as members of
one family; to sisters and brothers separate in space, differ-
ent in custom, but one in spirit and desire. We pray that
this conference shall be a season like Pentecost of old, when
each, whether from our own land or the dwellers beyond
the sea, shall hear in his own language the things of the
living spirit.
Our German friends say of us in this country, that we do
not run or leap, we simply fly; and therefore we are in dan-
WELCOME TO KINDERGARTNERS. 1 5
ger of losing sight of the solid foundations on which all
permanent building must be based; and we acknowledge
our danger, and say, "Give to us of your insight," and your
wealth of personal expression of the great apostle, that our
rapid action may still be rapid and at the same time safe,
because we have material landmarks to guide us. Mothers
and little ones love Froebel's "Die Mutter und Kose-
Lieder," but few educational people have caught its marvel-
ous power, or have seen it as the wonderful interpretation it
is of child growth and instinctive mother love. His " Edu-
cation of Man " has given wonderful insight into the growth
of being as a whole; but it is in personal letters to mothers
and dear friends that we seem to come close to the person-
ality of the man.
We have given the Kindergarten a hearty welcome in
this broad republic, and, as our foreign friends say, our
progress in the last few years has been that of flight rather
than touching earth; obstacles vanish before us, friends
receive the Kindergartens with open arms, enemies and
doubters are reconciled and believe. The truth does make
us free, and we need the strong, sure balance of insight into
the eternal truth of principle, to steady our movement and
calm our enthusiasm, to keep us united in a conscious ex-
pression of that foundation truth. The highest unity is that
of unity in variety.
When we begin to resolve an inspiration into formal ex-
pression, or law, that it may be given to others, we lose the
spontaneity which was the life of the inspiration. The
ten commandments are dead-letter tables of stone until in-
terpreted by the divine expression of that law, — viz., to love
thy neighbor as thyself. Then alone it becomes no longer
an external thing, but written upon our hearts, revealing it-
self ever anew in our lives and actions. External expres-
sion of any truth is a lie, therefore dead, unless it reveals
the living truth from within, which is its life.
We have striven with conscientious earnestness to an-
alyze the marvelous expression of truth, whose compelling
force has made alive to its real importance and filled us
l6 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
with inspiration. We have outlined the great underlying
principles of educational science, and said, Learn these and
you will know Froebel. But our results have been too often
lifeless formalities, as foreign to child development as possi-
ble. We have addressed a personal interest to science;
Froebel got his clew to great laws in nature. We will fol-
low the steps of the great leader. We broaden our thought
with literary culture, and strive to cultivate the artistic in
our natures. But while we bring all these elements to-
gether, we have no power to produce life from our formali-
ties. Too often it is a valley of dry bones, and our most
intellectual women do not make our best Kindergartners.
No applied mechanical activity can produce life.
And we turn back again to our original expression nat-
uralized,— child's play, a wisdom that seemed foolishness to
those who saw it externally, but which embodies the truth
of the growth of the human toward the divine.
"And Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst
and said. Except ye become as a little child ye cannot enter
in." It is the divine life of the child finding free expression
in natural activity, in an atmosphere of loving insight, that
we need to study. We feel more and more deeply that it is
the truth in actual living expression that we need. To be a
Kindergartner one must live with the children in the Kin-
dergarten; and her vital training must be through the inter-
pretations of that actual life by her guide, according to
these great universal laws and principles. Culture is good,
but facts as facts will come to anyone who hungers for
them; and the appetite is the first requisite. To be a Kin-
dergartner in a true sense means to get rid of the self-con-
ceit of thinking ourselves over and over, as though any one
of us was God's crowning thought. We have come to feel
ourselves as individual units in a great harmonious whole,
and we are striving to consecrate ourselves as individuals to
the one central purpose, — that nurture of the child's soul
according to the divine nature implanted in it.
Ada Marean Hughes.
Toro7ito.
ASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN.
(Address delivered by Miss Mary Proctor, daughter of the late Prof.
R. A. Proctor, before the Kindergartners at the Art Institute, Chicago,
July 21, 1893, by special request.)
I have been invited to say a few words about astronomy
for children, and it is with pleasure that I comply with this
request. Astronomy is such a fascinating study to me, that
it is my great desire to make it fascinating to others, and
especially to children. There is no reason why they should
not learn to love the flowers of the sky as dearly as they
love the flowers in the garden. But how can they learn the
wonders of the heavens, unless books are written within
their comprehension? Astronomy was distasteful to me at
school, because the books provided, and the methods of
teaching, were alike distasteful, whilst at home my father
made this study as interesting as a fairy tale. He would let
me look at the stars and the sun and the moon through his
large telescope, and tell me wondrous legends about the
constellations, about the craters on the moon, and about the
wonders of the nebula and the colored stars, until my cu-
riosity was excited and I became anxious to learn more.
Thus he led me on by easy stages, until I was old enough to
enjoy the more advanced works on astronomy. In the
same way I wish to interest little children, even the children
in the Kindergarten; and there are a variety of ways in
which the solar system, the colored stars, and other wonders
of the heavens can be taught to them. I gave a series of
lectures at the Children's Building last week, in which I
told them that the Brownies paid a visit to the sky; and as
all little children love the Brownies, they were very much
interested.
It is possible to teach the solar system by games,
such as the following: Place a yellow ball in the middle
of the room, and call it the sun; about a foot away
l8 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
draw a circle and station a little girl, calling her Mercury,
and give her strict orders that she must not move away
from the circle, but go steadily round and round. In her
hand the must carry a flag labeled "eighty- eight days,"
showing that Mercury takes eighty-eight days going round
the sun. About a foot and three-quarters away from the
path of Mercury mark another circle and place there
another little girl, called Venus, letting her carry a flag
labeled 225 days; and so on, with Terra (the earth). Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; whilst the asteroids
which travel in a path between Mars and Jupiter could be
represented by little toddlers of two years of age. Each of
the children representing the planets should wear colored
sashes, — such as a red sash for Mars, a green sash for Nep-
tune, a blue sash for Uranus, a striped sash for Jupiter, and
so on. Now for the comets, to complete this simple method
of teaching the children the solar system: A little child
might be labeled Encke, moving in an egg-shaped path
nearly as far as the circle round which Jupiter travels. As
she gets near the sun she must go faster and faster, but as
she recedes from the sun she must get slower and slower,
till she merely creeps along. Another little girl could be
comet Biela, which travels in a path beyond Jupiter; and
another, comet Halley, which travels beyond Neptune, the
most distant planet. The comets must be very careful as
they make their way across the solar system, as there are
many obstacles to be encountered on their way. Should
they rush into Terra, our earth, what a terrible catastrophe
might occur! or should they stumble over an asteroid, it
would surely be utterly demolished.
This is only a suggestion of the many different ways in
which astronomy may be made interesting for very little
children. It would be only a game for them, and yet a
game conveying a lesson they would never forget. In the
same way children could easily learn the leading constella-
tions, by seeing the pictures and learning the legends of the
sky. There is scarcely a constellation without a legend,
and for this reason the study of the constellations can be
ASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN. I9
made very interesting. Show a child the picture of Orion,
the heavenly hunter of the sky, warding off Taurus the bull,
who glares at him out of his bright eye Aldebaran. On the
shoulder of the bull glitters the well-known constellation of
the Pleiades, about which so many beautiful legends are
related. Behind Orion follows the little dog {Ca7iis Minor)
and the great dog {Canis Major), and between them is to be
found the unicorn. At the feet of Orion flows the Eridanus,
into which river Phaethon fell as he was trying to drive the
chariot of the sun across the sky. Tell these legends to
children, and they will at once connect the constellations
Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades, Canis Major with its leading
star Sirius, Canis Minor with its leading star Procyon, the
unicorn, and the river Eridanus. As soon as they learn
how to locate Orion, they will know that the other con-
stellations are near by, and that they are all to be seen at
the same time in the starry heavens. Then again, take the
legend of Bootes the bear driver, who ceaselessly chases the
Great Bear (the dipper) and the Little Bear round the
heavens, and who is followed by his two hounds, Asterion
and Chara. Grouping these ideas, the child will learn to
look for Bootes in the region of the well-known dipper,
and will not think of looking for him anywhere else.
This seems a very simple and easy way of teaching chil-
dren the sublime truths of astronomy, and why should not
this delightful study be made easy for them? Among the
rising generation may be numbered some day a future Her-
schel, a Galileo, a Copernicus, a Mary Somerville, or a Maria
Mitchell; who knows? Instead of beginning their study of
astronomy at an advanced age, so that fame is only attained
with their failing powers, or possibly never, they have
learned the wonders of the heavens whilst they struggled
with their A, B, C's, and when the proud era of graduation
from school arrived, they were already well grounded in a
fundamental knowledge of this noble science. Some of the
most distinguished astronomers of the day — such as Pro-
fessor Barnard, Professor Burnham, Professor Young, Pro-
fessor Newcomb, Professor Langley, and a host of others —
20 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
are Americans. Let these ranks be swelled by the rising
generation, who, cheerfully playing at astronomy in the
Kindergarten system I wish to introduce, will later on find
their own way to the knowledge of the stars, and become so
famous that Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and the rest of
these celebrated heroes of the sky, will fade into compara-
tive insignificance. This is my hearty wish, and all honor
to the future learned astronomers of the coming twentieth
century.
Mary Proctor.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES OF EDU-
CATION.
SINCE May i, 1893, the Memorial Art Palace, which
studs the lake front of Chicago, has been the stage
for much important drama, the actors in which
have ranged from every conspicuous department
of the world's work. The women met in international de-
bate over their specific interests, men have discussed poli-
tics and finance, while men and women mingled together
have earnestly interchanged their deeds and dreams in the
realm of music, art, literature, journalism, and science. The
personnel of the greatest thinkers and otherwise distin-
guished men and women of the world have appeared in suc-
cession, that the creator and his works might be glorified
together. The motto of the Auxiliary Congress, which has
headed every printed program sent out, has been most truly
substantiated: viz., "Not things, but men"; "Not matter, but
mind."
The educational congresses, which convened during the
latter half of July, seemed to gather up the many threads
of discussion which the previous special conventions had
thrown out. It was found to be the privilege of education
to consider all the special lines of man's higher work in
relationship to man himself. How to produce music or a
work of art, or even an acceptable philosophy, is but one-
half the question. The other half of the question is, In how
far are these means by which man may reveal himself, and
how valuable are these as tools by which to construct a
higher manhood?
The educational congresses, when viewed from the
standpoint of the Kindergarten, by no means lose in force
or vital import. The generally granted recognition of this
department by every other marks an epoch in the history
of natural education, of which the tendency of the N. E. A.
22 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
at the Saratoga session of last year was a partial prophecy.
The Kindergarten, considered not as a method of teach-
ing a sub-primary grade, but as the right beginnings of all
education, could command and hold such recognition.
The two distinct congresses of education, while under
separate management, and varying largely in scope and in-
tent, were happily blended into one by the frequent inter-
change of representative speakers and delegates among the
range of special departments. It was considered no irreg-
ularity for a representative from the rank of higher edu-
cation to participate in a discussion of the manual or art
training section, and the opening morning session of the
Kindergarten congress had, among other platform guests.
Dr. Wm. T. Harris himself. Dividing lines between the
departments, like those of the longitude and latitude of our
wonder-working world, were matters of the imagination, for
purposes of convenience only.
The same spirit which has been breathed down the cen-
tury by Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Froebel permeated every
discussion: viz., life should be the starting point, the
method and goal of all education. This was reiterated by
the Kindergarten section, the manual and art training sec-
tion, and the departments of higher education, university
extension, and Chautauqua study.
Twelve distinct department congresses were carried on
simultaneously during the week of July 17 to 23. Each of
these departments was under the full control of a local Chi-
cago committee, which has served for a year preparing its
programs and statistics, each in conjunction with an inter-
national advisory council. In this wise the entire list of
prominent professional educators has been canvassed in
every direction, and much valuable correspondence has
been accumulated. The letters from those who could not
participate in the congress were in many cases read as re-
ports of work from interesting foreign points, so that every
nook and corner of the schoolmaster's world has been pried
into. The programs, as finally presented by these com-
mittees to their departments, represent the available grist.
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES OF EDUCATION. 23
in the form of valuable papers, letters, and reports. No
cordiality or hospitality has been spared on the part of the
Chicago people to make the foreign and visiting guests
thoroughly at home in this city. Many homes have been
thrown open, and glimpses into the characteristic features
of American life have been occasioned. The informal social
intercourse of the visiting educators has brought about a
closer sympathy and fraternity, wherein head and heart
have each had a part. The reflex influence of this warm
and friendly contact will be felt all along the lines of public
and private schools, from Kindergarten to university, in the
coming year. Methods and theories have not counted for
more than men and women, and the demand has come,
loudly and urgently, that these two no longer be separated.
Rounds of applause greeted the enthusiastic utterances of
the younger generation, as well as those who have stood at
the helm for a quarter of a century.
The International Congress of Education was held under
the direction of the National Educational Association of
the United States, July 25 to 28, with Dr. Wm. T. Harris in
general charge. This congress provided for sixteen special
sectional congresses, covering all the important depart-
ments of education. This congress reaped, as it were, the
full harvest of the preliminary week's work, and was able to
cover a more comprehensive though less technical ground.
With the assistance of the department chairmen, Mr. Harris
made up a program which provided a thesis on each im-
portant topic, followed by an outline of points for the
further discussion of the same. As a result every phase of
the most important subjects was brought before the con-
gresses, thus securing excellent oral as well as impromptu
discussions. These are to be printed in full, in the volume
of the proceedings of the congress, by the National Educa-
tional Association.
THE KINDERGARTNERS IN CONGRESS
ASSEMBLED.
T^HE special congress of Kindergartners held its first
session July 17, at ii A. M. A most earnest body
of workers from far and near met, on an average,
in three daily sessions for a full week, with an ad-'
ditional Sunday program of appropriate topics.
Professor Wm. N. Hailman presided over the regular
sessions as chairman, and the happy fulfillment of the con-
gress was in no slight degree due to his tact and humor.
He opened the program with a most eloquent and impress-
ive paper on Froebel and his work, wherein he sketched
the entire province of the "new education." Mr. Hailman
placed stress upon the so-called religious training embod-
ied in Froebel's teachings, emphasizing the necessity of
fathers and mothers all becoming educators. To be a par-
ent or a citizen is not enough; they must also be teachers,
in the true sense of that word. He urged that parents
cease to abdicate their divine rights and privileges as guard-
ians of their children. The self-activity of the child is
honored by no one educator more than by Mr. Hailman.
In this paper he illustrated how the achieving s\d& of child
nature should be given full play, and this through right,
spontaneous motives from within the individual child. He
condemned vigorously the sentimental, benevolent turn
wdiich is given to the children's doing for others. They
should do for each other, prompted by that altruism of the
soul which looks always to the good of humanity. He re-
futed the too-long-accepted materialism that the little child
is a little animal, since such could only grow into a greater
animal and would culminate in the opposite direction from
that of spiritual development. The child is a growing, liv-
ing organism, which can attain all he dares hope. He is not
a physical, cellular structure, but an expression of the larger
KINDERGARTNERS IN CONGRESS. 2$
life of all humanity. Mr. Hailman added, with strong feel-
ing:
"We have reason to congratulate ourselves that this
man Froebel has come among us, to show us what a living,
pulsing thing the school may be. His sense of knowledge
has a living quality, is full of action and fertility." Mr,
Hailman closed with a cordial word of encouragement to
every effort made in the right direction, whether on the
part of parents, schools, teachers, or pedagogues. Progress
is being made in all these directions.
Among the congress guests who occupied the platform
during this opening session were Mrs. E. W. Blatchford,
chairman of the local committee; Miss Caroline T. Haven,
of New York; Miss Mary McCulloch, of St. Louis; Miss
Angeline Brooks, of New York; Mrs. Eudora Hailman, of
La Porte; Mrs. Louisa Pollock, of Washington; Mrs. Alice
H. Putnam, of Chicago; and Commissioner Wm. T. Harris,
of Washington.
On the evening of July 17 Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, of San
Francisco, read a paper on "Every Mother a Kindergart-
ner." The topic was of her own choosing, and was handled
with feeling and force. Many young women and mothers
listened to her appeal for more intelligent mother love,
which should combine wisdom with affection, and which
should unfetter the child to fulfill his highest possibilities,
Mrs, Cooper's own motherliness and sincerity of purpose
inspired her words, while her happy invitation to the audi-
ence to applaud her arguments brought them near to her.
Mrs. Cooper was followed by Mr. Wm. L. Tomlins, of
Chicago, present choral director of the World's Fair, who
gave an extemporaneous address on the Place of Music in
the Kindergarten. The practical demonstrations made by
Mr. Tomlins with his large classes of children have aroused
•the inquiry of how it is done. With a few graphic illustra-
tions he pointed out his effort and its results. The humani-
tarian basis of all true education was again emphasized, as it
had been in all previous papers, but from another stand-
point,— that of art for man's sake. The strong individuality
26 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of Mr. Tomlins, as reflected in his thought and work, ap-
pealed directly to the Kindergartners, whose creed unites
the man and his works. Not this or that method of teach-
ing music should be the goal, said Mr. Tomlins, but music
as a means of expressing the brotherhood of man, in mutual
sympathy and. cooperative service.
The second forenoon session was devoted to the con-
sideration of the Professional Training of the Kindergartner,
which was provided to be discussed from several stand-
points; but owing to failures in attendance, one paper only
was presented, that by Mrs. Eudora Hailman, of La Porte.
Mrs. Hailman outlined the ideals which should be aimed at
by the Kindergarten training teacher, as well as the scope
of study and application of principles essential to an under-
standing of the work. The paper was discussed by a num-
ber of prominent training teachers present, who hailed the
height of the ideal and approved its adoption. Mrs. Hail-
man recommended that above all else the Kindergartner
should be trained to be individual. Her natural instincts
should be strengthened, and the bond of sympathy between
students and training teachers should be constant. She
said: When true psychology shall have become one of the
everyday rather than a special study, fruits will be harvested
as never before.
Miss Angeline Brooks closed the program with a paper
on the Relation of Play and Work, in which the educational
values of play were closely calculated and happily illus-
trated.
Tuesday evening was devoted to the discussion of Froe-
bel's Religion, which was opened by the reading of a letter
from Miss Eleanor Heerwart, and participated in by Mr.
Arnold Heinemann, Miss Brooks, Rev. Mr. Mercer, Mrs. O.
A. Weston, and many others.
Wednesday morning, July 19, found the Kindergartners
in a joint session with the congress of manual and art educa-
tion. It is a significant fact that these departments should
find so much in common as to profit by joint sessions. The
individual energy which the Kindergartner seeks to engen-
KINDERGARTNERS IN CONGRESS. 2/
der is the quality which art and manual training hopes to
apply in good works. It was a rich program, opened by
a very comprehensive historical sketch of the manual train-
ing work in this and other countries, prepared by Mrs.
Louisa P. Hopkins, of Boston. Character Building through
Work was a suggestively written story by Mrs. Chas. Dick-
inson, of Denver, Colo. The story showed in a dramatic
way how parents may influence the forming characters of
their children. The situation of the plot illustrated many
of the most vital points in child training, doing so without
directly condemning wrong methods.
The paper on Symbolism in Early Education, read by
Mrs. Marion Foster Washburne, of Chicago, was one of the
most aggressive as well as effective appeals for nature and
life as they are, that has. ever been produced. It will ap-
pear in full or in part in the October number of the Kinder-
garten Magazine. Mrs. Washburne clearly presented the
law of symbol-making as is manifest in all history, art, and
language, and gave the poet his true place above all other
men, because of his true use of symbols as a means of in-
terpreting truth.
Professor Hannah Johnson Carter, of the Philadelphia
Drexel Institute, discussed the Promotion of Child Activity,
from the standpoint of the average conditions of school and
teacher. She pointed out many weaknesses, many errors,
and worse ignorance on the part of teachers. Ignorance of
pedagogics leads to the use of devices by which to hold the
child's interest.
It was an elect audience which was brought together by
this joint program, since it included the promoters of the
most progressive measures ever brought to the schoolroom
door. At the close of the most hearty attention of the
large gathering to the programs, discussion was abandoned
and Miss Susan B. Anthony was introduced to this assem-
bly, which, as she reminded them, had sat for two hours to
listen to women, — no gentlemen having participated in the
program.
The joint session resumed its program in the evening,
28 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
presided over by Dr. Hailman and Miss Josephine C^ Locke,
respective chairmen of the two departments of Kindergar-
ten and art and manual training.
The relation of the Kindergarten to the primary school
was discussed with much force and profit by Wm. T. Harris,
Miss Mary E. Burt, James L. Hughes, and Dr. Hailman.
Mr. Hughes, with his accustomed eloquence, testified to the
importance of carrying the Kindergarten spirit into the
primary grade. The schoolmen have learned much from
the Kindergarten. As a result, the past twelve years show
the methods of discipline revolutionized. The secret of
discipline is to give appropriate work, work fitted to the
child's activity and capability. In the home the child finds
his problems and brings them to the parent; but in the
school, the master hunts up the problems and foists them
upon the child.
The influences of the home and school upon child char-
acter were practically discussed by Miss Constance Macken-
zie and Rev. Mr. Mercer. Mr. Edward Boos-Jegher, official
delegate of the Swiss Confederation to the Columbian Ex-
position, made an earnest appeal for better home training.
We could hear the spirit of his great countryman, Pestalozzi,
speak through him, as he reiterated with fervor the words
of his predecessor: Mothers should go into the Kindergar-
tens, and bring home with them the disciplinary secrets of
right training.
Miss Josephine C. Locke added her glowing word in
favor of finding joy and gladness in work. Faith in the
divine possibilities of every child, followed up by apprecia-
tion of every righteous effort, is the only fruitful education.
At the following morning session Mr. Edward G. Howe
read a spirited paper on elementary science teaching, reject-
ing all temporary experiments that are not based upon the
actualities of nature. He showed how teachers may classify
and group the things visible, and laid down as a rule: "If
you are not sure of a thing yourself, do not teach it." Mrs.
Louise P. Hopkins' paper was also read, wherein she shows
that the study of science is becoming more and more a
KINDERGARTNERS IN CONGRESS. 29
study of poetry, — the record of the beauties of nature par-
allel with the feelings of man.
Was there not an appropriateness in this program group-
ing the topics of natural science study with physical culture?
Man is a part of nature, and expresses the beauties of nature
in his body. Baron Nils Posse, of Boston, opened the dis-
cussion of gymnastics. He is a young, energetic, quick-eyed
man, who carries his work in his heart. His practical and
common-sense views of this oft-sentimentalized subject ap-
pealed to his hearers, especially as these were based upon
experiments made with little children rather than adults.
The object of physical exercise is to regain bodily equi-
librium. In the case of the child this can only be done as
the child is lost in the idea he is expressing. The Kinder-
gartner should have elementary gymnastic training in order
to properly direct the daily energy of the child along cor-
rect lines. A drill is never educational in itself, but the
playing of soldiers may be introduced with good results.
Miss Margaret C. Morley added her plea that beauty of
motion might not be divorced from use. She said gymnas-
tics are only a means for the soul to tell its message.
A full morning session was given over to the discussion
of art in the Kindergarten. Mrs. Mary Dana Hicks, who is
such a favorite with Kindergartners because of her clear-
sighted pedagogy as well as her complete personality,
presented a paper covering a broad scope of the subject,
illustrating many points by her own experiences and experi-
ments. We will hope to bring this paper to our readers in
some future number, as also that of Mrs. Mary H. Peabody,
whose able psychological arguments impelled the closest
attention.
Professor Jno. Ward Stimson, of the Artist-artisan Insti-
tute of New York city, proved to be one of the most inspi-
rational speakers of the week. In a characteristic way he
rapidly sketched his own struggle for artistic life, — seeking
at all the schools, of all the masters, the food with which to
satisfy his ideals. Finally he went to the works of the mas-
ters, and here found the key and saw how these great
30 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
artists had applied nature's laws throughout. He made an
earnest appeal for individualized expression, for an Amer-
ican art rather than an imitation of the Grecian or Roman.
Throughout the sessions of this department congress,
sincerity and individual convictions reigned supreme. Time
was not occupied for the sake of filling it, but rather, an
overflow of strong feeling and responsibility to utter the
truth revealed to the individual, often prolonged the ses-
sions beyond the hour. The closing session of the week's
fullness gathered on Sunday afternoon a large assembly to
hear of the relation of the work to the church and Sunday
school. Congregational and solo singing interspersed the
papers by Misses Wheelock, Bryan, and Howe, and closed
the busy week with a restful and peaceful spirit. Mrs. E.
W. Blatchford, chairman of the local Chicago committee,
presided at this session, and the year's earnest labor, by
which the way for this congress had been made straight,
was again reflected back to the laborers in its gratifying re-
sults.
CONGRESS NOTES.
We have left a report of the Kindergarten section of the
International Educational Congress, as well as the Round-
table discussions, for next month. They were fruitful and
suggestive, and brought Kindergartners closer together in
the contemplation of mutual problems.
On Saturday, July 29, Mr. Geo. L. Schreiber, the artist
who decorated the Children's Building, met a party of Kin-
dergartners informally, and told them of the scheme of the
decorations as well as of the educational service of true art.
This was of great interest to many of the Kindergartners
who had contributed to the decoration fund.
Among the pleasing foreign representatives who at-
tended the congresses were Mrs. Mary Eccleston of the Ar-
gentine Republic, whose work has been to bring the Froe-
bel doctrine, through the Spanish language, to the South
Americans, and Miss Nannie B. Gaines, from Hiroshima, Ja-
pan, who reported great growth and many unusual experi-
ences in the establishing of the work. Miss Gaines will
spend a year here before returning to her work.
The several social gatherings which were arranged for
during the congress time were by no means the least profit-
able share of the program. Mrs. E. W. Blatchford enter-
tained the Kindergartners and other department educators
at a most cordial reception, while the Free Kindergarten
Association opened its rooms to a family gathering for a
happy afternoon. Other informal excursions about the city
and the World's Fair, added to the mingling of the many
waters.
The visiting Kindergartners and educators were invited
by Mrs. Geo. L. Dunlap, chairman of the Children's Build-
ing Committee, to make that unique building their home
and headquarters when at Jackson Park. Aside from the
32 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
many interests centering about the creche, Kindergarten, and
classroom work, a series of educational lectures were con-
ducted under the direction of Colonel Francis Parker.
Among these were the following: Miss Proctor, on "Stars
and Children"; Mrs. Frank Sheldon, on "African Travels";
Fraulein Schepel, on "Every Mother an Educator"; Miss
Mari Ruef Hofer, on "How to Teach a Song to Children."
Among the many interesting guests attending the con-
gress were Miss Nora Smith of San Francisco, and her sis-
ter Mrs. Kate D. Wiggin. Miss Smith came directly on
from her year's work, and while indisposed to take an ac-
tive part in the program, her presence gave great pleasure
to her friends and the many who know of her work on the
coast. Mrs. Wiggin was just returned from England, and
brought greetings from the workers there, which she deliv-
ered in person from the platform. Mrs. Wiggin is now a
permanent resident of New York city, and it is thus that
the sisters with the same thread of work span the country
from coast to coast. Miss Smith will travel for six months
and then return to her Silver-street Kindergarten.
The work-charts and writings of Miss Emma Marwedel,
who founded the Kindergarten work in California, were dis-
cussed between the programs of the congress. Her mate-
rials were described by Miss Nora Smith and Professor
Earl Barnes, both of San Francisco, who testified to their
practicable qualities. The charts illustrating the possibili-
ties of the materials were on exhibition both at the Cali-
fornia State Building and the Memorial Art Hall. A pam-
phlet titled "Hints to Teachers," was circulated accompa-
nying the charts, setting forth Miss Marwedel's theory of
color, form, and number combinations, through the use of
her wooden ellipsoids, rings, and circular drawing. Cordial
greetings were sent Miss Marwedel by the Kindergartners.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
It is with sincerest gratitude that the editors of the
Kindergarten Magazine receive the congratulations so
generously forwarded them during the past Summer, from
teachers, editors, and parents. When a grade teacher or
Kindergartner tells of the growth that has gone on in her-
self, and therefore in her work, during the past year, and
gives credit to the reading of the Kindergarten Magazine
for part or all of this improvement, we know that its work
has .been parallel to the needs of the teacher. When edu-
cational journalists cordially welcome our monthly to their
desks and place it among their most highly respected con-
temporaries, we know that our professional standards are
not low. When business men and women point to the Kin-
dergarten Literature Company as a model and substantial
business enterprise, we know that the institution has grown
to be a permanent factor in educational history. The man-
agement hereby acknowledges the warm words and warmer
cooperation which have been extended it from all the above-
named sources.
The following letters speak for themselves.
A Kindergartner of long standing, and lecturer at nor-
mal schools in New York State, writes under date of May
22: "I cannot tell you how helpful your magazines are to
me in my school work! They are all the more so as our
Kindergarten is the only one in this county and we have
little or no intercourse with others in the work."
A primary teacher of long experience writes from Wis-
consin: "The last number of the Kindergarten Magazine
came today; it is an especially attractive number. I cannot
tell you how helpful it has been to me. It broadens and
uplifts to a wonderful degree. How can any teacher afford
to be without it — especially d^ny primary teacher?"
During the past Summer the editors of the Kindergar-
ten Magazine and Child-Garden, as well as many other Kin-
Vol. 6-3
34 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
dergartners, have had occasion to feel the pulse, as it were,
of the people's interest in right child training. One of the
most notable facts is that the Southern visitors to the Fair
have shown a marked interest, asking many intelligent ques-
tions, and showing a determination to lift the condemnation
under which their schools labor. Parents have expressed
the desire to see their Southern children as liberally edu-
cated as are their Northern brothers and sisters. Calls for
Kindergartens and better primary methods come from all
the Gulf States.
Bv the way, it was noted that the "other half " was fre-
quently more intent upon finding proper literature and sane
toys to take back to the children at home, than was the
mother. One father, after listening to an earnest appeal
for more "doing" in the schools and less "book learning,"
said in a characteristic Southern voice, "Then I reckon
there'd be less big heads than there be." It has been a rev-
elation to many a teacher to watch the methods and manner
of work carried on at the World's Fair Kindergartens. We
are convinced that a new impulse has been given to inquiry,
and that the coming year will show a growth in this special
branch of work, which will greatly change our Kindergarten
statistics. This so-called reform in education has its double
work today, — that of opening the eyes of the parent and
teacher, that these in turn may not seal those of the chil-
dren. It is doing this work effectively, and with permanent
results.
Who is the more helpful companion, — the one who over-
shadows his friend with his superabundant personality, or
the one who draws out the better self of his friend at every
turn? What is the most helpful educational journal, — the
one which formulates every idea for its readers, and pre-
sents its own notions of progression as final, or the one
that throws out broad natural suggestions, which, because
they are vital, will impel the reader to apply them accord-
ing; to the necessities of his own case?
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL S " MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. I.
The increased interest and earnest inquiries of educators
on all sides have prompted us to work out a practical plan
of how best to investigate this all-important book. Several
leading Kindergartners have from time to time revealed its
wonders with all the inspiration and zeal of revelators. In
Germany the Baroness von Bulow of Dresden, and Frau
Henrietta Schrader of Berlin, have devoted the energy of
mind and heart to establish and make practical the sug-
gestions of this book. In England Emily and Francis
Lord, after fully realizing the import of the mother's
book, translated it into English about 1885, it having been
translated in America some years previous. Among those
who have most assiduously labored to bring the home and
the mother's influence into the school, not as a matter of
sentiment but a matter of psychological necessity, as re-
vealed in this book. Miss Susan E. Blow has stood foremost.
During many years of inspirational work she taught and
demonstrated the philosophy of the child, touching fire to
the earnest hearts of many students, who have since carried
her work forward.
Like Froebel himself, every Kindergartner is turned at
last from the child to the parent,— to the mother,— there to
do the crowning work of her educational effort. Every
Kindergartner finds that human nature runs along the same
lines, whether manifested by child or adult. She f^nds that
the same principles apply in her daily contact with men
36 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and women which she seeks to live out among her children.
Froebel's "Mutter und Kose-Lieder," above all else, for-
mulates and illustrates these general universal principles.
Hence its value to the student of human nature or child
nature.
The humanitarian studies embodied in its songs and ser-
mons are full of the most vital interest to parents and teach-
ers, since the illustrations are drawn from human daily life,
and stand for themselves, as psychological arguments. The
author of this book was confronted with the problem of
helping the mothers, often unlettered and full of unformu-
lated feelings, to realize the scientific, philosophic, and eth-
ical import of the everyday experiences of their children.
Wise man he was, to take a little child — one of their own
little ones — and set it in their midst! He gave them a
series of pictures from real life, and then, together with
them, sought to read the story between the lines, and to
find the soul behind the simple experience there recorded.
It is our firm conviction that the great good-will and
sincere idealism poured into this book for mothers will in
time be fully received. While its truth of conception is
deep and broad, and may be interpreted from the most
philosophic or abstract standpoints, it is our purpose to give
merely a suggestive outline of how Kindergartners may
draw near to the book and assimilate the mother spirit
which was breathed into it forty years ago.
To such as read the German we would recommend a
parallel study of Pestalozzi's "Letters to His Friend," which
we believe has not yet been translated into English. Here
the same truth is voiced from another standpoint, but with
a heart's overflow of feeling, such as cannot fail to warm the
reader into a new appreciation of ideals, and the faith which
makes these real.
The following outline of how to prepare for the fuller
study of "Die Mutter und Kose-Lieder" has been recently
provided by Miss Susan Blow, and will be supplemented by
a series of articles by different workers, discussing the
points in full detail:
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 37
1. Like otfier great books, "Die Mutter und Kose-Lie-
der" requires both private and social study. A class of five
or six, meeting once a week and preparing for this meeting
by individual work, might accomplish excellent results.
2. This is primarily a book for mothers, and should be
read and studied from that point of view.
3. The book presupposes a mother's feelings and experi-
ences; hence two or three members of each class or study-
group should be mothers. Froebel's aim in making it the
basis of his lectures to Kindergartners was to fan to flame
the spark of spiritual motherhood which each woman carries
in her heart.
4. In studying any great book one must begin by find-
ing its seed thought. Find the central thought of the book
as a whole first, then of each individual song.
5. The seed thought of "Die Mutter und Kose-Lieder"
is given in Froebel's "Education of Man," pages 65-75 "^^
Dr. Hailman's translation, which discusses mother instinct
and mother insight as related to the spontaneous activity of
the child.
6. Seventeen years elapsed between the publication of
the "Education of Man" and that of "Die Mutter und Kose-
Lieder." During all this time the thought was growing and
unfolding in Froebel's mind. To seize it in its germinal
form, as in above reference, is a great help toward grasping
its more complete expression.
7. Begin by reading the book through, seeking to catch
its general aim and spirit, remembering Froebel's principle,
that each thing must be grasped as a w/io/e, then seized in
its details, then more concretely apprehended as a unity
penetrating these details.
8. Next read the seven introductory songs between
mother and child, and stanzas entitled "Closing Thoughts."
9. After this give a week to the careful study of the two
chapters, "Songs between Mother and Child," and " Glance
at a Mother who is Absorbed in Looking at her Child."
Do not study these critically or from the literary standpoint,
but with the desire to feel out broadly into the mother
38 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
mood. You will then be ready to begin the 'study of indi-
vidual songs and plays.
GENERAL TALKS IN THE KINDERGARTEN.
General talks are in connection with every subject of
experience in the Kindergarten, and will necessarily be of
wide and varied range. Whether we study works of nature
or those of man, there is one principle to remember, and
that is, to symbolize a decprr truth tliaii appears o?i the surface, in
order to appeal to the child's higher nature. " Nature is of
service to man only as he sees through and beyond her."
Since the child is a physical being he is subject to the same
laws that govern the physical world. " Everything in na-
ture contains all the powers of nature." Laws of gravitation,
harmon}' through contrasts, unity in variety, cause and ef-
fect, interchange of matter, etc., are evidenced in the small-
est of nature's works, and in sympathetic living with these
the child's inner life develops in accordance with natural
laws. One of the greatest aids in attaining this end is the
imagination, the mediation between the world of sense and
the world of spirit. In the gifts and occupations the child
is never required to compare or reason abstractly, so in the
talks he must have something to perform the same duty as
his balls, blocks, etc., do in the gifts; and this he finds in
the imagination. He thinks through images. In the story
of Lily Bulb or Baby Calla the imagination transforms the
bulb, a thing perceived through the senses, into a person-
ality, and Lily Bulb learns the lesson of waiting and con-
tentment, experiences the care and kindness of the gar-
dener, the sunshine, and the rain, and at last blooms into
marvelous beauty, giving joy to all who behold. "The
world is a mirror wherein the child sees himself reflected,"
and the experiences of Lily Bulb are his own.
Further, the imagination does not give mere facts, but
facts clothed in a fanciful dress, and hence full of meaning.
Thus the sunbeams, instead of being rays of light coming
from the sun millions of miles away, are dancing fairies
sent to the earth on messages of helpfulness and love. The
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 39
imagination also opens the eyes to the poetic or beautiful
in life, for "Imagination is the foundation of all art. The
poet, painter, or musician — all \vhose creations afford us
delight — could have given us nothing without it, nor can
we understand and enjoy their creations unless we, too,
have the power to image for ourselves their conceptions.
The scientist imagines, then verifies his imaginings by re-
peated experiments and careful extended observation.
Here, too, we shall fail to understand his discoveries unless
we call to our aid the imagination." Through the imagina-
tion the child becomes acquainted with a world not per-
ceived by his senses, and is preparing himself to receive
the truth of conscious spiritual life when he is ready for it.
The providence of our heavenly Father is plainly shown
in every work of his creation. In all forms of life there is
provision made for sustenance. Seeds, bulbs, and plants
store nutriment on which they feed till leaves are formed
to take in the required . nourishment. Eggs of frogs are
surrounded by a jelly-like substance which is the food of
the young until it is capable of propelling itself in search of
food. Birds and animals have instinct to select proper food
for their young. Parents, by labor, convert the products
of nature into food for their children. In each of these the
child sees the evidence of the same law, and the creative
spirit within him refers it to an invisible creative cause; and
thus he feels the unity in all life, and the spirit that ani-
mates each variety.
It is necessary in talks, as well as in all other depart-
ments of Kindergarten work, to relate each day's work to
the preceding; one day's talk will grow naturally from
those of the previous days. The change of seasons will
bring change of subjects in related order, until the child
sees the mutual dependence of all things, and their rela-
tion to one another.
In a year's work the following subjects and many others
will introduce themselves, beginning in September: Fruit,
flowers and their seed, leaves, grain, nuts, the squirrel.
Thanksgiving day; the preparation for Winter, which brings
40 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
under our notice, first, migration of birds; second, woolen
things for which we are indebted to the sheep; third, fuel,
introducing the begrimed miner; fourth, Christmas time
and Santa Claus, with the beautiful lessons of love in ac-
tion. Then come ice, snow, rain; and between the seasons,
wind, light, — sun, moon, stars, and artificial lights. The
joint work of sun, wind, and rain leads to the awakening of
the numerous forms of life which symbolize the Easter
thought — resurrection; in plant life, sap and buds of trees,
bulbs, roots, and seeds; in animal life, the egg, butterfly,
bee, frog, snail, lizard, the bear, and return of birds; in civil
life, the farmer and gardener, bringing us back to fruit and
flowers.
In the Spring of the year we have the anniversary of
the birth of the "new education," arising from the faulty
systems preceding, — faulty inasmuch as they were not based
on natural laws. The patriotic sentiment also has its place
here, in the celebration of the queen's birthday.
In this sketch of work thus briefly outlined, the Kinder-
gartner requires a knowledge of botany, zoology, geology,
and physics, also of the different manufacturing processes
in their primitive stages.
Results to be looked for from successful talks with the
children: Introduction to natural science; observation quick-
ened; expression through language; enlarged sympathy in
every direction; imagination strengthened, developed, and
exercised; a striving up to the ideal, higher power over ma-
terial manifesting itself in artistic creation; and all these
combined aid in forming a character in unity with nature,
man, and God. — Bertha Savage, Hamilton, Can.
THE STORY OF SIEGFRIED.
Long, long ago, before the sun learned to shine so
brightly, people believed very strange things. Why, even
the wisest thought storm clouds were war maidens riding,
and that a wonderful shining youth brought the Spring-
time; and whenever sunlight streamed into the water they
said to one another, "See, it is some of the shining gold,
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 4I
some of the magic Rhine-gold the mist men have left us.
Ah, if we should find the stolen Rhine-gold we would be
masters of the world — the whole world"; and they would
stretch out their arms and look away on every side. Even
little children began looking for the stolen gold as they
played, and they say that Odin, a god who lived in the very
deepest blue of the sky, came down and lay in the grass
with his spear beside him, to watch the place where it
was hidden.
It was in the deepest rocky gorge, and a dragon that all
men feared lay upon it night and day. Alberic and his
mist men wove chains of clouds to bind him, and Mimi, an
earth dwarf, strove to mend a broken sword to slay him;
but though they worked always, nothing was ever done.
The cloud chains mfelted away at morning, and no one who
feared anything in the world could mend the sword, be-
cause it was an immortal blade; it had a name and a soul,
and it was a gift to the child Siegfried from his mother.
This boy Siegfried lived with the earth dwarf in the very
deepest forest. He was the free child of the world. He
had not known his mother, even though he dreamed faint
dreams of her when the leaves trembled and birds came
home.
He lived as wild as bird and beast. He chased the wild
boar for play, and bridled bears, and laughed with the
mountain torrent. He knew nothing of the magic gold or
the mist or the world; he did not know who Odin was, and
Mimi — he only laughed at Mimi, and waited for his sword.
Each day at evening he thought, "What if it is done!" and
he would come bounding down the mountain, blowing great
horn blasts.
Once he came laughing and shouting, and leaped into
the cave, driving the bear on the poor frightened Mimi,
who ran round and round; he darted here and there, and
jumped about until Siegfried could go no more for laugh-
ing, and the bear broke from the rope and ran into the
woods.
Then the dwarf crouched, raging and trembling, behind
42 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the anvil. The boy stopped and looked at him. "Why do
you shake and cry and run?" he asked. The dwarf said
nothing, but the fire glowed strangely, and the sword shone,
and Mimi trembled more as he looked at the face of the
boy.
"Dost thou not know what Fear is?" he cried, in rage.
"No," said Siegfried; and he went over and took up the
sword, and the blade fell apart in his hand.
They looked at each other. " Can a man fear and make
swords?" asked the boy. The dwarf said nothing, but the
forge fire flashed and sparkled, and the broken sword
gleamed.
The boy smiled, and gathering up the broken pieces he
ground them to fine powder. The dwarf raged and wept,
but Siegfried laughed as he worked. And when he had
done, he placed the precious dust in the forge and pulled
at the great bellows. The fire glowed into shining, the
whole cave was light, and the face of the boy was like the
morning.
Always the dwarf was growing blacker and smaller, and
always Siegfried laughed as he pulled at the bellows; and
when he had poured the melted steel into the mold, he
laid it again in the fire. The light was more shining than
before, and the joy. in his heart broke into song. When he
took out the bar and struck it into the water there was
great hissing, and a mist rose up about him, and Alberic
stood there with Mimi, and they raged and wept together.
But Siegfried only laughed and sang, as he pulled at the
bellows or swung his hammers. At every blow he grew
stronger and greater, and the sword bent and quivered like
a living flame.
At last, with a joyful cry he lifted it above his head with
both his hands; it fell with a great blow, and behold! the
anvil lay apart before him, and the blade was perfect.
The joy in Siegfried's heart grew peace, the light melted
into full day, and the immortal sword was again in the
world; but Mimi and Alberic had vanished.
Siegfried smiled. He went out into the early morning;
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 43
the light glittered on the trembling leaves and sifted
through in splashes. He lingered, listening to the hum and
chirp and twitter all around him. Two bn'ds were singing
as they built a nest; he wondered what they said to one
another. He cut a reed and tried to mock their words, but
it w^as like nothing. He wished so that he might speak to
some one like himself, and he wondered about his mother.
Why had she left him? did all mothers leave their children?
even bird and beast had mates; it seemed to him he was
the one lone thing in the world. He wondered what a
mortal's mate was like, and lifted his silver horn and blew
a sweet blast; but no friend came. He raised it and blew
again, louder and clearer, when suddenly the leaves stirred
to a great rustling and the very earth seemed to tremble;
for behold! he had waked the dragon that all men feared.
It was coming nearer and nearer, breathing fire and smoke.
But Siegfried only laughed, and leaped over him as he
plunged; and when he reared to spring upon him, he drove
the immortal blade into his heart.
And there the great evil lay, dead, with no more power
in the world!
Now when Siegfried plucked out his sword he smeared
his finger with the blood, and it burned like fire, so that he
put it in his mouth to ease the pain, when suddenly the
most strange thing happened: he understood all the hum
and murmur of the woods; and lo! the bird on the very
branch above was singing of his mother and of him, and of
the gold that would make him world-master if he'd give up;
and more, she sang on of one who slept upon a lonely
mountain; a wall of fire burned around, that none could
pass but he who knew no fear.
Siegfried listened in wonder to hear, but the bird flut-
tered away before him. He saw it going, and he forgot the
gold and the whole world, and followed it. It led him on
and on, to a lonely mountain, where he saw a glow of light
at the top. He climbed up and up, and always the light
grew brighter. And when he was nearly at the top, and
would have bounded on, he could not, for Odin stood there
44 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
with his spear across the way. The firelight glowed and
flashed around them, but the sword gleamed brighter than
anything that ever shone, as Siegfried cleft the mighty
spear and leaped into the flame. And there at last, in the
great shining this Siegfried beheld a mortal like himself.
He stood still in wonder. The light glinted on armor, and
he thought, "I have found a knight, a friend!" And he
went over and took the helmet from the head. Long ruddy
hair, like flame, fell down; he stopped in wonder. Then he
raised the shield, and behold! in white glistening robes he
saw the maid Brunhilde. And she was so beautiful! The
light glowed into a great shining as he looked, and, hardly
knowing, he leaned and kissed her" and she awoke.
The light broke into full day, and it seemed to Siegfried
that he had found his mother and the whole world. — Maude
Mencfce.
THE DANDELION,
Pretty little dandelion
Growing in the grass.
Lifts up its yellow head
To look at those who pass.
But ere the Summer's ended
His yellow head turns gray;
His petals bright, to angels turn,
And then all fly away.
■ — Grace E. Loving.
HOW TO APPLY THE STORY OF SIEGFRIED.
Just one year ago the September work in the schools
opened with a study of Columbus, preparatory to the Colum-
bian year and its historic dhwiiemetit. The faith, substan-
tiated by works, and the noble endeavors of the man, have
been retold and sung, pictured with pencil, needle, and in
sand, while children in every grade have acted out the
drama of the great life of the navigator. In all this study
the one man, with his history, has stood for the ideals of a
race, which repeat themselves in every child. The contem-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 45
plation of any great man will feed this same ideal in the in-
dividual; hence it is not necessary to repeat the study of
the same man annually.
In view of pres*enting a fresh field for the coming year's
study, we bring this month the Story of Siegfried, with sug-
gestions for applying the same. "The Life of Siegfried,"
written by James G. Baldwin, will be found ripe in color and
dramatic element., with which the Kindergartner may fill
herself. Out of the superabundance of a subject only, can
a teacher feed the children properly. In the case of the
connecting class, or primary, the book may be partially
read aloud to the children. For the youngest children it
should be told simply and naturally, suggesting the parallel
experiences in the previous stories of Columbus or other
heroes. All myths that interpret nature are healthy and full
of meaning to the child. If the thought of the tale is high,
it needs little garnishing. Dainty adjectives do not take
the place of strong, clear, forceful sentences. The latter
will impel the child to work out the story with his pencil or
his other materials.
In a certain school where the work is graded from the
Kindergarten up, preserving the same elements of training
in the higher grades, this story was carefully presented. At
the close, some of the children came to the blackboard, the
others taking their paper and pencils. The drawing re-
sulted in graphic and dramatic figures. Each child chose
his own epoch, no two proving the same; but all were vigor-
ous and full of meaning. The drawings were gathered and
arranged in their order in a frieze about the room, remind-
ing one not a little of the stretch of warriors and other fig-
ures of the Parthenon frieze.
The Kindergartner emphasized the light and joy which
marked the Siegfried, and the bird talk which he so well
understood created much comment. The sand table fur-
nished the means for their expression, and mountains and
streams were the chief form of this expression. These were
afterwards repeated in the outlines with sticks and rings,
one little one insisting upon a "birdie" in her tree.
46 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Such spontaneous work comes in proportion to the feel-
ing stirred among the children. A trutli story, such as the
eternal myths, will ever bring the result. The systematic
development of form or numbers, of materials and succes-
sive school work, must grow out of this. Series of Froebel
occupation and gift work can be adjusted to reflect the same
intent feeling, and will be none the less pedagogical. If
the child's nature is untouched by the Kindergartner's
thought, it will never respond to the bare materials. — A. H.
HOW TO STUDY SEA LIFE.
A teacher asked me the other day what object I should
begin with in my Fall science lessons with the little chil-
dren. She said it was difficult to decide, as there were so
many interesting things in the world. I told her, in sub-
stance, the following, and present it here as it may chance to
answer a similar question from others. My first object is to
secure a family atmosphere in the Kindergarten; hence we
observe 2i family. We study the several objects, — if you care
to consider them as such, — but always as a group of related
objects. The family is the highest type of this. It may
begin with the human home circle in a general way, and
then be more closely considered by the study of some ani-
mal family. The latter being more compact, will tell the
story of related members clearly to the child.
Having thoroughly established my central object, —
namely, the family relationship, — I may then go on and
illustrate it by the fishes, birds, flowers, or any other group
of objects. Soon the children, together with me, find the
family element in all things. This September we will study
the sea shells, and group the varieties which are brought
back by the children. At the close of our work last June
each promised to bring a contribution of sea shells, and no
one will fail to keep the promise, I am sure. There will no
doubt be more of the scallops than of any other variety,
therefore we shall study them quite exhaustively,' The pic-
tures of the "dancing scallops" will be utilized in our
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 47
games, and I can already see the bobbing wee folks playing
themselves out at sea.
Very nearly all of our children will have been at the sea-
shore or the World's Fair. We shall have the pictures of
the Fisheries Building and its fascinating inmates. In time
we will accumulate an aquarium, and so our science work
will grow on and out into a most wonderful study of these
things, interesting in themselves, but doubly and much more
vitally so when closely interwoven with the children's own
experiences. Meanwhile I have carefully studied out all
that the good books have to say on the subject of sea life,
and have prepared myself to answer any impetuous ques-
tions that will only too surely be poured upon me. I shall
not, however, inform the children about what we are investi-
gating. They must find out all for themselves. They can
read the story of the living creature from the shells, and
little by little trace out the entire history.
Object teaching is so much misunderstood. The single
object may render limited information of itself, or it may
become the "rosetta stone" by which whole chapters of
nature's hieroglyphs are interpreted. The latter should be
every teacher's aim. No object is complete by itself. It
must be considered in relation to others, and above all else
to the life of the child or student who seeks to learn its
message.
The book I shall use for the background of my sea-life
study, and which I have been delighted to penetrate this
Summer, is Damon's "Ocean Wonders." There are many
other side helps, but when compelled to make a choice be-
tween several books, I always seek out the one whose author
is an enthusiastic and experimental investigator of his sub-
ject.—J^w^ 5. M.
THE STORY OF THE ST. JAMES SHELL.
The dainty scallop shell which every child cherishes,
and which is the chief stock in trade at the coast fish mar-
kets, has a unique history. In the misty days of the Cru-
sades, when the success of these long journeys was almost
48 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
a miracle, the travelers sought some sign by which they
might prove on their return that their feet had touched the
holy soil. These scallop or St. James shells bordered the
shores of Palestine, floating like fairy fans along the edges
of the water. The pilgrims found them as the first greeting
of the desired land, and in time it became the custom to
attach a scallop shell to their cloaks, as a sign unmistakable
that they had realized their visions.
In time the fluted shell, with its radiance of sea-tint
color, became a symbol of saintship, and was worn by a
certain order of chivalrous knights during the Middle Ages.
The pilgrims called this (to them) precious shell after St.
James, since he who once was but a poor fisherman became
a glorified saint.
THE REASON WHY.
Oh, happy birds among the boughs,
And silver twinkling brook below,
Why are you glad.
Though skies look sad?
'Ah, why? And would you know?"
A pleasant song to me replied;
"For some one else we sing;
And that is why the woodlands wide
With rapture round us ring."
Oh, daisies crowding all the fields,
And twinkling grass, and buds that grow.
Each glance you greet
With smiles so sweet!
'And why — ah! would you know?"
Their beauty to my heart replied;
" For some one else we live;
And nothing in the world so wide
Is sweeter than to give."
— St. Nicholas.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
49
A SONG TO THE SHELLFISH.
Rock-a-bye, babies,
Upon the great sea;
The billows are bringing you
Swiftly to me!
Sleep, Winkle and Conch,
On the high foamy tide;
For in your hard shells
You safely will ride.
Your cradle's your house.
Your ship, and your coat.
On the waves of the ocean
You're gayly afloat!
With no houses to build
And no clothing to make.
Pray what do you do
When you get wide awake?
You eat the bright seaweed?
You think that is good?
You have nothing to do
But to hunt for your food?
Thanks, little Shellfish;
You fill children with glee
When you leave them your house
By the great, restless sea!
—E. G. S.
50
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Sophia S. Bixby.
Wm. G. Dietrich.
m^^
f.iVt^=x:
— i^N I
I'he pairy.
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1. Have you heard of the dear lit - tie fair- y,
2. She is look - ing at you lit - tie chil-dren,
That is
And for
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watch in- us all the long day; How she loves the bright smiles and
lilethat is found She'll fly to our gar -den this
ev-er - y snu
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Copyright, :
by W. L. Tomlins.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
51
I'he paipy— Concluded.
$
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Chorus.
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sun-shine
eve - ning
And would ban- ish th-^ frowns from our way. Then
And plant a new flower in the ground.
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sure we will try and re-mem-ber
To look at the fairy and smile.
es5
gp&sttttl-tt
52 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
AN OUTDOOR SCHOOL.
Editor Kindergarten Magazine: — I find in the June
number of the Kindergarten Magazine a few words re-
garding open-air Kindergartens, and thought it might not
be amiss to send to your magazine an account of mine,
which has opened for the Summer. Anxious to start a
Kindergarten and knowing that every town is the better for
such a movement, I was not to be deterred because no room
could conveniently be procured, so decided to have it on
the front porch of my boarding place. It is in the midst
of great grounds filled with various kinds of beautiful shade
and fruit trees, among whose branches three varieties of
birds have already set up housekeeping. A nice lawn,
flower beds filled with plants from the tiny shoot first peep-
ing above the ground to the perfected blossom, charm the
children and awaken interest in nature's wondrous store-
house. In the rear of the house are grapevines, fruit trees,
and a large vegetable garden. Birds, dog, cats, hens and
chickens, horse, cow, butterflies, bees, and others make up
the animal population. We have music for our songs,
marches, and games, as the porch opens from a room with
the piano. Soon the children will have a sand pile, and I
hope, gardens of their own. The porch is not a large one,
but suffices, considering all other outdoor privileges. In
stormy weather we go to my room. Today the children
modeled from clay a hen's nest with the good hen sitting
upon it, our hens and chickens in the barn furnishing the
text. So that the children may draw pictures of what they
see, a yard of slated cloth is for the morning tacked upon
the side of the house. In emphasizing color by means of
the balls, the blue ones are hidden beside lobelia or blue
pansies, while red and yellow rose bushes offer excellent
hiding places for red and yellow balls. The open-air Kin-
dergarten is, however, far from being idealistic, and requires
quite as much tact, patience, and hard work as one indoors.
There are advantages in favor of each; but before we can
have an ideal Kindergarten either in or out of doors, we
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 53
must give birth to the ideal Kindergartner and child. We
look to the congress in July to help this good day along.
Sincerely yours.-7-Z. S. Loveland.
June tj, i8gj.
ELEMENTARY SCIENCE LESSON.
Much has been said, much might be said, on elementary
science. What does it really imply? What part of such
work is (^^.y^" adapted for the Kindergarten? Do we Kinder-
gartners consider these points sufficiently, or do we accept
science work because accepted by others? These questions
may be suggestive for thought.
The subject cannot now be fully handled, but one lesson^
from a series, with its purpose, may aid the thought of the
teacher.
The children had been working on that most interesting
subject, water. From the science standpoint, water drops
and water confined in certain space had been illustrated.
They had seen how water finds its own level by means of
sand hills, slanting roofs, etc. In the practical illustrations
of the uses of water, and the construction of pipes and
pnmps, we came to the negative side of the same truth:
viz., that water never rises higher than its source. The
question was put, "How does the water come to us?" and
the children answered, "It runs through"; or again, "What is
the pump for?" and the answer, "It makes the water come
out." Then one day the children built a two-story house,
with a number of Second-gift cubes, with cardboard laid
across to serve as a division between the two floors; the cyl-
inders served well for the large pipes; Second-gift- cylindri-
cal beads were used for the house pipes, and several formed
a vertical pipe "for the water to go upstairs." It was now
planned to show by the children's own experiment the need
of mechanical appliances, and the conjunction of other
forces with water, in service to man.
A hill of sand was arranged; at the top of this a reser-
voir was to be represented, the idea of which had become
familiar to the children; a tin box was used for this. A
54 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
hole at one end admitted a glass tube, which was bent to go
first in a horizontal, then a vertical direction, and was "the
pipe into which the water ran from the reservoir." The
children eagerly watched and assisted in the arrangement.
Water was then gradually poured into the box, and the chil-
dren discovered it rise simultaneously in the tube. "More
water in the box, more water in the pipe," they said.
To make the truth very clear, the water was then gradu-
ally taken out of the box, and the corresponding difference
in the pipe noted. The children so enjoyed the experiment
that they repeated it over and over. A slat was used as a
measure, to prove how the height of the water in the one
was always the same as in the other.
When the sand and water were removed, a little conver-
sation was held, on "how the water could get up higher,
and the people who live upstairs have some at the top of
their pipe"; also, on "how the water 'way down in the well
came up so high." This was carried further the next day.
The working of a play pump, and the watching of real
ones, made it clear that, as one small boy said, "the pump
pushed it up."
It was decided that when the reservoir was large, and
the water had to go to a great many places, a machine
moved the pumps, instead of man, and thus one thing
helped another.
Now perhaps some one says, "What is the use of little
children knowing such things?"
The knowledge of certain facts is, without doubt, of the
least importance. The investigation, as investigation; the
inciting of the observation to note the action of water gen-
erally, and a consequent wonder in so common a thing; the
recognition of a principle always obeyed by the water
drops; and the realization that in the world of nature and of
industries one thing unites with another for the general
good, — these things seem to me of the greatest value. And
z/ these are the aim of the teacher m a ?iumber of lessons,
they will not prove — as some one said the other day —
"only a beautiful theory," but become a practical reality
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 55
gained by the children, at least in some degree. — Frederica
Beard.
HOW A KINDERGARTEN WAS ORGANIZED.
Atkinson is a little town of about five hundred inhabit-
ants, on the Rock Island road, one hundred and fifty miles
west of Chicago. There are two distinct classes of people
in the town, having separate churches and schools, — the
American (of English descent) and Belgian. The former
and larger portion are Protestant, the latter Catholic. All
are honest, law-abiding citizens, possessed of a spirit of
thrift and enterprise unusual in so small a place. The busi-
ness portion of the town contains some nine or ten stores of
various kinds, in one of which is located the post office.
Besides this there are two large grain elevators and a bank.
The town can boast of but one hotel, nor is there demand
for more, as there are few visitors to this quiet, peaceful
place.
In December last, some of the leading men of Atkinson
decided to organize "an Improvement Association." The
name tells its purpose. To quote the words of one of its
members: "We never did anything very great; only every-
thing we have had as a town, I think, came from that. We
didn't have any fire protection before that, and now we
have a fire engine and house. The next thing we gained
was a street sprinkler, and then we decided to lay sidewalks
where they were needed, and in general planned to beautify
the town. Then came the idea of the Kindergarten, and
you know how that has grown."
At Christmas a Kindergartner in Chicago sent to a
friend at Atkinson Miss Harrison's "A Study of Child Na-
ture." The book made a very deep impression, the young
mother receiving it thinking much of how desirable a thing
it would be if all children could have the benefit of such
training. Shortly after this she called upon another wide-
awake, energetic young mother, and asked her if she had
seen the book. The reply was in the negative, but some
Kindergarten articles had been read which had appeared in
56 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The Ladies' Home your?ial, and she had thought very seri-
ously about having a Kindergarten in Atkinson, if sufficient
interest could be aroused.
These two ladies commenced a series of calls, taking in
the greater portion of the town, making between one and
two hundred visits. They first interviewed all the people
who had children of Kindergarten age (three to six), after-
wards making a second round of calls upon those who had
not children, but whom they hoped to interest. No one
knew anything whatever about Kindergartening, but these
ladies explained it as well as they could. They then issued
postal cards to everyone whom they had visited, requesting
each to be present at a meeting to see whether a Kinder-
garten could be secured. It was decided that it could, and
the giver of the book was requested to come out and speak
to the mothers, her expenses being paid. She came and
spoke very intelligently and simply of the benefits to be
derived from the training, and the mothers listened with
keen mterest and appreciation.
There were seventy-five at this meeting, and an associa-
tion was then and there formed, officers elected, and com-
mittees on finance and entertainment appointed. Then the
question came up and was voted upon, as to whether to
have a trained Kindergartner or a primary teacher who had
read much about Kindergartening, who tried to follow its
principles, and who was really an excellent teacher in her
own department. She had many warm advocates who
pressed hard, but after hearing the address of this Kinder-
gartner, it was decided to have a regularly trained teacher.
It remained now to raise the funds. The committee on
finances divided the town into fifths, each taking a fifth as
her portion, calling first upon the people who had children,
and asking them if they would send their children, and
what they could give a week, desiring each to give some-
thing, if only five cents, but wishing none to be excluded
from the Kindergarten. They obtained seventy-five dollars
in this way. They next called upon those who had no chil-
dren, and raised the amount to $125. Confident that they
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. • 57
could raise $150, it was decided to proceed with the work,
and hire a teacher. If all of the material could not be paid
for, an entertainment could be given, and the remainder
raised in that way. This was eventually done, twenty-five
dollars being netted.
At the next meeting a report was made of what had
been done, and everyone was very much delighted. After
that two or three meetings were held, at which chapters
from Miss Harrison's book were read, and it was then
thought best to discontinue these meetings until the Kin-
dergartner should be there to conduct them. A business
meeting was held in April, at which it was definitely de-
cided just what each would contribute. The school board
gave a room in the village schoolhouse, took out the seats,
and cleaned the room. The ladies who were interested
(and a great many of them had no children) went over to
the schoolhouse one Saturday morning, taking such pictures
as had been contributed, — about fifty in number, — and hung
them. Two ladies, one the daughter and the other the sis-
ter of a carpenter, came with hammers, nails, and boards,
and made four tables, and two long benches for the little
ones to stand upon so that they could reach the blackboard.
They asked no help; they carried in the boards themselves,
measured them off carefully, sawed them, and put them to-
gether as neatly as anyone could have done.
It should be said of the pictures hung upon the walls,
that all were carefully selected, not merely that they should
be pretty and attractive, but full of meaning, those of chil-
dren, animals, and birds being given the preference. An
ungainly post in the center of the room was draped with
red; white, and blue, and all unsightly places upon the wall
were covered by flags. Oilcloth marked in inch squares
was then sent for to cover the tables, and "pineapple tis-
sue" cloth sash curtains put up at the windows. That came
to one dollar for four windows. A square piano was do-
nated by a friend, and willing hands formed a circle on the
floor, by driving in brass-headed tacks. The Kindergarten
friend in Chicago was then authorized to order all necessary
58 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
material for twenty-five children. This came to $34.90
including two dozen chairs. The material for the entire
Summer has cost $50.58, which includes the $34.90. There
have been, however, thirty children in regular attendance.
This same young lady secured the Kindergartner at a
salary of thirty-five dollars a month, her board and laundry
being furnished. The girls of the town had been depended
upon for assistants, but this proved unsuccessful. At the
end of five weeks the ladies met and decided to procure an
assistant, to make it less hard for the Kindergartner. A
young lady was sent for from Aurora, her board, car fare,,
and laundry being provided. This has proven a wise meas-
ure. At the outset a great many more children came than
were expected, there being thirty-eight on the opening
day; and many of them were beyond the Kindergarten age.
After some discussion the ladies concluded to allow them
to remain if they showed by their contented, happy man-
ner it was better for them to be there. The spirit in the
Kindergarten from first to last has been beautiful, made so
by these happy, loving children. The schoolhouse is situ-
ated in the center of a square, s-urrounded by magnificent
trees, so closely set that only the flag pole of the school
can be seen from without. The soil of the place is a rich
black loam, so that everything grows well. During the
warm Summer mornings the tables have been moved out of
doors, and there we have worked and played, watching the
birds build their nests and feed their young. A large col-
lection of nests has been made, the last being one most dif-
ficult to obtain, — that of an oriole, curiously woven of twine
and leaves and horsehair. We have had many curious and
interesting pets, our last foundling being a young robin that
opened its mouth to an enormous extent every time anyone
approached, much to the delight of the children. Not long
since a large number of "walking stick " insects were found
by the children, crawling up the trees, and one morning
only a dozen frogs were brought by the older boys to be
examined and admired. Nature is to be found here on
every hand in her most attractive form, and the children
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 59
are, as one would expect to find them, as free and unharmed
by others' thoughts as the birds, and quite as joyous.
To meet the needs of the older girls, a sewing class was
organized by the Kindergartner, and excellent work has
been done by them in a most careful, painstaking way.
The model book of sewing used at Pratt Institute was sent
for, and has served as a guide. The mothers have ex-
pressed hearty approval of this work. Every Friday after-
noon the mothers have gathered at the schoolhouse, and
listened to readings and talks upon child training, varied by
songs and games and explanations of the work being done
daily in the Kindergarten. In the Kindergarten itself each
child has had a book in which all of his hand work has
been placed in regular sequence as completed. They
admire these books, and like to see them grow step by
step. The Kindergarten will close August i8, having be-
gun June 12. It has been to the entire village a center of
activity and helpfulness, and another year it will be an easy
matter to raise funds. It is with the hope that other small
towns may go and do likewise, that this article has been
written, and also with the desire that other Kindergartners
may know how rich and profitable they can make a Summer
in their lives. — Minnie M. Glidden.
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
SCISSORS, AND HOW TO USE THEM.
A pair of scissors and a bit of paper are to be found in
any nursery or living room. Let children have scissors of
their own as soon as they are able to handle them at all,
which should be when they are passing three years. The
round-bladed are better than those with sharp points. Let
the children practice cutting, from any old paper or maga-
zine, the pictures, and with a few hints help them to arrange
a collection of animals, of flowers or birds. Having a defi-
nite purpose adds interest to the effort. Many little girls
show whole boxes of paper dolls and their wardrobes as the
fruits of their industrious cutting. It is quite as well to
give them other than fashion books, however. After the
children have mastered the handling of the scissors they
can begin to cut free patterns. Give them fresh, unprinted
paper for this, as they are better able to carry the design in
mind, and follow its imaginary outline with the scissors.
The mother, or older person about the children, can do
much to encourage the skill and create the ability to cut
free-hand patterns, by finding the similarity in the scraps of
paper to actual objects. As the child watches the clouds to
find camels and ducks and mountains, so in this his imagin-
ation will be strengthened. The next step will be to encour-
age the child to decide what he will make, before he puts
the scissors to the paper, and as nearly as possible to carry
out his design. Instead of purchasing fancy toys to amuse
her children, any mother can cut a Noah's ark, with all the
varieties of animal kind which go to make up such a treas-
ure-house. "Is there anything 'Kindergarten' about that?"
you will ask. Certainly. Any productive activity is educa-
tional, especially when coupled with the mother's earnest
desire to help her boy or girl in the right direction. The
Kindergartners have arranged a series of free cutting exer-
cises, which apply to home use as well. Some few of the
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT.
6i
former are given below, which will illustrate their own pur-
pose:
Use a uniform size of paper. The four-inch squares of
colored paper, to be bought at any Kindergarten or school-
supply store, are very good; or the uniform scraps which
can be secured at any country printing office or paper house
will answer the purpose as well. The color adds greatly to
the realism of the forms when cut, and serves at the same
time to form the child's taste.
Taking a square of paper, cut into it one half inch from
the edge. Then follow out a spiral curve, cutting ever
closer and closer to the center, until the entire sheet is one
spiral th. 3ad of paper. If the children are too young
to make a "snail," as they call it, it will afford them no
small interest or profit to watch the mother or Kindergart-
ner, with steady hand, cut on and on. Taking another
square, cut in this a continuous series of squares within
squares, never breaking the thread until the center is
reached. As in the effort to pare a whole apple without
breaking the paring, so here, great skill and foresight are
demanded. As in the other illustrations, life forms may be
cut, which modify the circle or square. Giving the child a
guide as to general form, makes his work more sure and
correct. Keep both the form cut, and the background from
62 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
which it has been taken. Paste both side by side in a
scrapbook, and enjoy them with the children. One little
lame girl, who began her simple "scissoring" in the Kin-
dergarten, developed such skill that in after years she was
able to support herself by the artistic forms she created,
which were purchased by the city confectioners. Another
unique artist cuts exquisite silhouettes of any face brought
before him at a glance. The scissors, like the pencil, can
become the tool for artistic work, with practice. — H. B.
THE BUTTERCUP MEADOW.
I have heard of the buttercup meadow.
And think I have seen it tonight;
It was just on this side of the woodland,
And was dotted with yellow and white;
And sweet little birds hcwered o'er it,
And flew in and out 'mid the flowers,
And the daisies all nodded approval,
And the buttercups dropped golden showers.
Yes, I think it must be the same meadow
I have heard of for many a day;
The children all know where to find it,
And all gather there for a play.
It is "Daisy, you sweet, precious daisy,
Your nightcap's as white as the snow;
And, buttercup, give me your gold, sir!
And do you love butter? — ah, no!"
And then the sweet hands are laden
With daisies, and buttercups too;
The children run home from the meadow.
Away, before fast falls the dew;
And then merry elves from the woodland
Flock down to the m.eadow to drink
All the dew from the sweet nodding blossoms;
It must be the same meadow, I think.
— Emma L. Clapp.
mothers' department. 63
florine's visit to kindergarten.
"Florine," said Mamma one morning early, "shall we go
to Dot's Kindergarten today?"
Florine is only two years old, and does not understand
what a Kindergarten is; but she knows who Dot is, so she
claps her tiny hands and dances with glee.
• Dot is only two years old, also; but as his mamma is
one of the helpers, he has begun Kindergarten early in life.
When Florine arrives, the children are seated in their
red chairs, placed in a circle in the center of a large, sunny
room. The organ plays softly and the children sit quietly
listening. When it ceases, Mrs. Gay says, "Good morning,
children," and all respond with a bright good morning.
Then all repeat in reverent tones, with folded hands and
bowed heads, first a morning prayer, which is then softly
chanted.
Little Dot peeps at Florine from between his fingers, but
Florine looks soberly about the circle. She is too intent to
encourage Dot's mischief.
"Good morning" songs are now sung, to teachers and
pupils, to our dear little school, and to the merry sunshine.
Then follows a charming finger play, set to music, and
Florine watches Dot as he tries to "Dance little thumbkin."
His little fat fingers crook themselves in a comical manner,
but "little gold man" refuses to dance without help, and he
gives him up in despair, as the others are already dancing
"little baby."
"Helen, have you a story for us this morning?" said
Mrs. Gay. The little three-year-old, twisting her apron
with her restless fingers, recites:
" Once I had a little kitty
White as snow;
In a barn she used to frolic
Long time ago."
The children clap their hands with delight, as she returns
to her place. Then a trio sing "The Merry Brown Thrush,"
with appropriate gestures.
It is Dot's turn now. Florine eazes at him with won-
64 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
der as he gathers up his apron, with Mamie-doll in it, and
swaying to and fro, half sings, half recites:
"Wock-a-bye, baby, t'ee top;
Wind b'ow, baby crow,
Swing high, swing low,"
then laughingly capers back to his tiny chair beside Mamma.
The quiet music begins again, and all settle comfortably
back in their chairs for a rest. At a certain chord all rise,
and stand behind their chairs. Another chord, — the chairs
are raised over their heads, and resting there, are carried on
the march around the room to the low tables. A third
chord, — the chairs are lowered and the children seat them-
selves, with folded hands placed upon the table, as the quiet
music soothes them once more into stillness.
Dot brings a chair for Florine, and they sit with the
three-year-olds at Mamma's table. A basket with balls of
bright colors stands in the center of the table. Dot wants
to give one to Florine, but Mamma shakes a warning finger
at him; so he folds his hands like the rest, till the music
ceases.
Then begins an interesting talk about the birds, their
colors, their food, their nests, and their habits. A bird's
nest is passed about the table.
"Now make a little nest with your hands;" and each
child receives a ball, as Mrs. Gay sings:
" Now take this little ball,
And do not let it fall;
Birds of yellow, red, and blue,
Some for me and some for you.
Now take this little ball,
And do not let it fall."
Helen volunteers the information — "I have a little blue-
bird." Dot echoes, "boo-bird," and lovingly pats his ball.
Then all sing:
" In the branches of a tree
Is a bird her nest preparing;
Laying in one little egg,
Coming out a little bird,
Calling its mother, — peep, peep, peep;
Mother dear, peep; Mother dear, peep;
You are much loved;
Peep, peep, peep; peep, peep, peep."
mothers' department. 65
"Mary," says Mrs. Gay, "has your little bird any feath-
ers?" "No," replies Mary, "they haven't grown yet." A
further talk follows, about the faithfulness of the parent
birds in their care of the young, and of the similar care
given to them by the children's parents, till the birds begin
to get restless.
Raising the balls by the strings, in time with the song,
the children make "the little birds hop in and out the nest,"
rock them to sleep and wake them up, to "fly, little bird,
fly round the ring." Olive shows how they do it, skipping
around the table, waving her arms for wings, while Dot fol-
lows with wavering footsteps.
Now they talk of the shape of the ball, and — "one, two,
three, — roll" them across the table to their teacher. Then
they liken each to some fruit, and Clara begs to be a little
gardener. So she wanders around the table singing:
"Oh, I'm a little gardener
With nice fresh fruit to sell;
And if you'll please to buy of me,
I'll try to serve you well! "
The others eagerly respond:
"We see your basket is quite full
Of different kinds of fruit;
And we should like to buy of you,
If you'll make prices suit."
Each one except Annie buys an apple, an orange, a
lemon, a plum, some grapes or cherries, while the basket is
returned. Now Annie starts on a search for the fruit, which
the children hide in their laps. There is a shout of laugh-
ter when Dot holds up a "boo apple," but Annie finds the
green apple, red cherries, and purple plums, then asks Ruth
for a yellow lemon. Ruth shakes her head and offers to
find the lemon, which she soon coaxes from Florine, who
has hidden it under her apron. The children guess that
Ruth has the orange, so all are found.
To quiet the boisterous little ones, "the soft ball loves
to wander from one child to another." They play wind-
mill, water wheel, church bell, and other games, joyfully
66 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
imitating and telling about the real things, when a single
note, sounded three times on the organ, says to the chil-
dren: "Fold your hands."
Their instant obedience is pleasing to behold. Even
little Dot shakes his finger at Florine, who does not under-
stand that the ball must be placed on the table at once, and
then shows her how to fold her hands.
As the quiet music follows, the balls are collected by a
child helper.
A chord is sounded; all stand; the children from the
three tables form a single line, with the drummer at the
head, and Flora, with the triangle, second. Mrs. Gay places
a pink, blue, or yellow soldier-cap on each head, as the
mimic soldiers pass. They march and counter-march, in
single file and double line, separate, pass, and unite again,
with a skill wonderful to see in such a tiny company, and
then form a circle for the games.
A leader is chosen, who selects a game — "the Pigeons,"
perhaps. Crouching in the center he beckons to four or
five children, who crouch down also, and walk into the ring.
Dot hops in, but the children laugh and say, "That is a
sparrow; he hopped; pigeons walk." Willie, the leader,
counts his pigeons; then all sing while the pigeons go to
sleep, wake up, and fly, come back to the house and sing
"Coo, coo," then back to their places in the ring.
Dot now chooses the skipping game. Ned and Arthur
take partners, and they dance while the others sing. Dot
follows with Mamie-doll, and as they "bow with gentle
grace," his head nearly touches the floor in his endeavor to
make Mamie-doll bow too.
A quiet occupation fills the rest of the morning. Model-
ing in clay is the favorite, and the little ones model a bird's
nest with tiny eggs in it, to take home to Mamma. Dot is
very proud of his, while Florine is inclined to taste hers, as
the clay upon her lips shows; and upon looking, we find
that the eggs are missing from her nest.
"Now Kindergarten's out, and we are going home.
Good-by; good-by! be always kind and good," sing the chil-
mothers' department. 67
dren; and cloaked and bonneted they march out, giving a
polite hand shake and happy smile to each teacher.
With a sigh of satisfaction Florine and Dot walk out
hand in hand, while their , lammas follow, smiling at their
pleasure. — Alys Day.
THE OLD-FASHIONED CHILD.
"Are you not interested in the Kindergarten work?"
"Oh, no; my baby is so awkward and clumsy, he never
could do those fancy things."
This reply of a mother suggests the mistaken impression
which has gone out concerning the Kindergarten work. It
is by no means a pretty, dainty play, nor is it for a select
few children who are rarely gifted. It is the means by
which any child can be helped to find himself and be him-
self. It is not an outside grace of body or alertness of
mind, but it is an inner natural growth which every child
should be granted. It is not a method of fancy dancing; it
is only an effort to reinstate those normal qualities which
every child possesses. Just as at the present stage of art,
the old-fashioned flower garden or antiquated china are
most beautiful, so with the little child, those simple, straight-
forward qualities of the olden day are growing more and
more desirable. The Kindergarten, or any other means
that can help bring us back to this condition, is a true
method.
HOW MUCH THE KINDERGARTEN DOES FOR MOTHERS.
Editor of the Kindergarten Magazine: — It might be of
interest to some disheartened mother to know that the Kin-
dergarten principle can become a great factor in her own
self-education. Truly the child can lead us to a higher life
and to a realization of our spiritual possibilities. How triv-
ial and selfish our past appears to us in the light of our new
life — a true regeneration! Through the child our own lim-
itations rise before us. Every moment of anger becomes
one of painful consciousness; every unworthy passion as-
sumes its real proportions. Life in its true relation be-
68 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
comes revealed to us. To each of us who wish to receive it,
the children may bear this message. — A CJiicago Mother.
THE SANDMAN.
I've two pretty boots, so soft and small.
When I run, they make.no noise at all.
I'm a friend of the children, that's easy to tell,
And though they can't see me, they know me quite
well.
Hush! I run quickly up the long stairs.
Where I find children saying their prayers.
And standing behind them, cunning and wise.
Two grains of sand I drop right in their eyes.
Then they sleep sweetly the long dark night,
Till angels bring them the morning light.
— Hal Ozven.
FINGER GAME.
(Holding up successively the fingers of the right hand.)
This is the father so good and kind,
This is the mother whom I always mind.
This is the brother so large and tall,
This is the sister who plays with a doll.
This is the baby so cunning and wee.
And this the whole family now you see.
Now it is night, and they've all gone to sleep;
Keep very quiet, and just take a peep.
The sandman and dream man have both been
around,
But they are so quiet they don't make a
sound.
(Laying all the fingers to rest in the palm of the left hand and waiting
for signal.)
Cookoo! Cookoo! Cookoo!
Hear the birds singing so sweet and clear;
Good morning; good morning! the morning is here.
— Hal Ozven,
mothers' department. 69
a mother inquires about kindergarten materials.
Dear Editor: — What will be the best Kindergarten gifts
for me to get for my little girl, who is six years old, who
does not go to school? Where shall I begin, to give her
the right start? Shall I take the First Gift even as old as
she is, to see how much she does comprehend? We live in
a small village thirteen miles south of Kalamazoo, and by a
creek, a small lake not far distant. It is not books, but the
gifts, and whatever will help her that we can afford, that I
want. Kindly yours. — M. E. L.
[It is not possible to tell in a letter what course of instruction to take
up with your six-year-old daughter. The Kindergarten rule is, Com-
mon sense applied daily in every detail, beginning with the baby up.
If you understand the gifts, as I take it from your letter you do, by all
means begin with the First Gift, adapted, however, to the age and com-
prehension of your little one. You understand that Kindergarten ma-
terials in themselves will not give your child Kindergarten training. It
is the spirit of the Kindergartner which makes the gifts or any other
near-at-hand materials valuable. You will find the occupations, weav-
ing, sewing, etc., very valuable to use with your child. Also the current
Kindergarten Magazine would be suggestive to you, and Child-
Garden will provide you with stories, rhymes, songs, and plays sufficient
for everyday use. The use of systematized materials can only be edu-
cational when fitted to the individual child. Study your child, and then
use such materials as will develop her along those lines in which she is
lacking. ' With a six-year-old child begin the free drawing, reproducing
stories and experiences. Take some one favorite story and lead her to
work that out, whether with block, door-yard pebbles, or sand on the
creek's edge. She is old enough to begin natural geography. See sug-
gestions in Mothers' Department of June Kindergarten Magazine.]
LITERARY NOTES.
A SERIES of World's Fair Studies, by Denton J. Snider, is just issued
by the Kindergarten College. Each number of the series appears as a
booklet, and under the following titles: "The Organization of the Fair,"
"The Four Domes," The State Buildings — Colonial and from East to
West," " The Greek Column at the Fair." Mr. Snider, who is well
known as a commentator of Goethe and Shakespeare, transfers his in-
terpretive power in this series to help men read the story behind the
fact of the Fair. He considers the Fair as an organic whole, which
stands for the product of civilization, rather than as the work of any
man or set of men. He then traces out the meaning of the individual
national and state buildings, finding how these reveal many most sug-
gestive and characteristic traits of the respective builders. The analy-
sis of the architecture of the World's Fair, from this philosophic stand-
point, is highly valuable, and every student, teacher, or educator should
possess himself of this series. After leaving the busy though beautiful
scene behind, a careful reading of these Studies will not only revive and
hold fast the crowded impressions, but will unify them, that they may
never again be lost. The study of the state buildmgs is brimming with
historical allusions, contrasting the past with the present in such a for-
cible, withal playful, way, that one seems to gather up all the old half-
realized facts in a new and interesting parcel of knowledge. Mr. Snider
has truly caught the universal story which the nations have uncon-
sciously set down in visible pile and pillar, and though every stone be
removed from Jackson Park, there will have been left a record of the
relative values of the nations such as- has never before been registered.
The series of five booklets are sold for 60 cents. Order of the Kinder-
garten College, or the Kindergarten Literature Co., Chicago.
The Columbian Congresses and exposition have called forth many
pamphlet reports and syllabi of work from all schools and educational
institutions. A full collection of these, together with the recent report
of the United States Commissioner of Education, makes a most interest^
ing statistical library. There is a neat volume, dated Montevideo, 1893,
with an account of the public schools of Uruguay, and similar ones from
Berlin, London, and Paris.
The Bttffalo Kindergarten News, which was organized and carried
on by Mr. Louis H. Allen, of Buffalo, has been transferred to the firm of
Milton Bradley, of Springfield, Mass. The earnest, uncounted labor
and enthusiasm which Mr. Allen poured into the little monthly has not
been in vain, though at times not fully appreciated. The News has
made many friends during its short career, and will no doubt hold them
fast under the new management.
FIELD NOTES.
Clara Beeson Hubbard. — In St. Louis, on June 4, 1893, there passed
to the higher life a Kindergartner of many and rare gifts. Clara Bee-
son Hubbard, the author of " Merry Songs and Games," has, through
the happy medium of this book, endeared herself to all children who
sing her songs and play her games. She had been denied the great
privilege of active Kindergarten work for several years, but never for a
moment did she lose her interest in and enthusiasm for the cause so
dear to all who come under its divine influence. The study and prac-
tice of the principles and philosophy of the Kindergarten develop the
genius of character, and it is well for us to know how stanchly these
principles and this philosophy bear the hardest strain, the severest
tests. From this beautiful and joyous personality, stricken down in the
prime of lovely womanhood, we can learn how great and universal prin-
ciples apply to every phase of human life. The child of the humblest
intelligence and the fully awakened genius are alike benefited by the
system that develops character. While it is to be regretted that Mrs.
Hubbard did not live to fully round out and complete her work as a
Kindergartner, all may rejoice in her demonstration of patience, hope,
and courage. It is not so much what we accomplish in deeds that the
world can see, that is the final test of character, but when the " soul is
matched against its fate," and wins, we can study with profit the educa-
tional process of this development that resulted in victory. — A. N. K.
The Kindergartens of Los Afige/es. — As early as 1876, Miss Mar-
vedel, a self-taught Kindergartner, encouraged by letters from Mrs.
C. M. Severance, came from Massachusetts and opened a private Kin-
dergarten school in Los Angeles. After a short time, not finding suffi-
cient encouragement to continue, she removed to San Francisco, and
opened a school in that city. This was before Mrs. Cooper, whose ex-
tensive system of Kindergartens in San Francisco is now so well known,
had made public her interest in this method of education. After Miss
Marvedel had left Los Angeles, several small attempts at private Kin-
dergarten teaching were made. Miss Stewart, now teacher of training
classes in Philadelphia, being the most successful worker.
In June, 1885, inspired by the enthusiasm of Mrs. Severance, presi-
dent of the Woman's Club of Los Angeles, many of the club members
and some non-members formed an association, called the Free Kinder-
garten Association of Los Angeles. Mrs. Severance was chosen presi-
dent. The vice presidents were Mrs. H. T. Lee, Mrs. R. M. Widney,
Mrs. A. H. Judson, Mrs. S. C. Hubbell, Mrs. E. F. Spence, Mrs. L. V.
Newton, Mrs. E. B. Millar (deceased), Mrs. Milton Lindley, Rev. A. J.
72 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Wells, and Mrs. W. R. Blackman; secretary, Miss Nellie Mackay;
treasurer, Mr. T. C. Severance. Through their pastor, Rev. A. J. Wells,
the Congregational church offered one of its chapels for the use of the
association. This offer was gladly accepted. The members of the so-
ciety were so zealous, that at the time of the opening, on October i, there
were over thirty pupils. Miss Mackay was chosen teacher, and being
possessed of the true missionary spirit, she soon brought the influence
of her system of instruction to bear not only upon the minds and hearts
of her pupils during school hours, but she carried that influence into
their homes and shed a blessing upon the parents, careworn and
thoughtless, often ignorant and improvident.
In 1888 a second school was opened by the association, in the vicinity
of the Southern Pacific railroad station, in another mission chapel of the
Congregational church, the rent of which was donated. Miss Ella
Clark was placed in charge. This school was discontinued after two
years.
In the Winter of 1889-90 so much influence was brought to bear upon
the Los Angeles school board, that the Kindergartens were adopted as
part of the public school system. These schools only admitted pupils
five years of age and over, consequently the work of the association was
not superseded, as it was felt that the principles of the Froebel system
should be instilled into the child's mind before the age of five.
At first twelve schools, and at present date (June, '93) twenty-two,
have been ingrafted upon the public school system of Los Angeles.
The association, at its meeting of October, 1892, formally gave over
to Mrs. J. A. Wills and Mrs. T. D. Stimson the free Kindergarten, until
that time conducted by that society. This school has been housed in a
permanent building, erected by the ladies mentioned above. At the
same meeting of Octoh^r^ the annual! — it was voted to elect the offi-
cers and managers for the ensuing year, and then to allow the somewhat
overworked members to rest for a few months, subject to the call of the
president, when it might be found necessary or feasible to open another
charity school or to do any other work in their particular line.
The officers and members of the board of the preceding year were
reelected, and were as follows: President, Mrs. C. M. Severance; vice
presidents, Mrs. J. A. Wills, Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont, Mrs. Milton
Lindley; secretary. Miss Ella Clark; treasurer. Miss Alice Severns;
board of managers, Mrs. A. L. Whitney, Mrs. M. F. Woodward (de-
ceased), Mrs. L. V. Newton, Miss Carrie Seymour, Mrs. Geo. Fitch, Mrs.
T. D. Stimson, Miss Margaret M. Fette, Mrs. E. Enderlein, and Mrs.
Major Elderkin. Besides these of the old board, Mrs. Margaret Hughes
and Mrs. D. C. Cook were elected members. The life members of the
association are Mrs. A. H. Judson, Mrs. Jotham Bixby, Mrs. I. W. Hell-
man, Mrs. E. F. Spence, Mrs. C. W. Gibson, Mrs. C. M. Severance, H.
C. Mills, George Hanson, Wm. Lacy, Geo. A. Dobinson, and the Los
Angeles County Bank.
FIELD NOTES. 73
The latest step of interest in Los Angeles, in regard to this system of
education, is the establishment of the Froebel Institute, for carrying out
the principles of Kindergarten education for children from the tender
age of three to the tmie of their entering college. This work is to be
undertaken by Mrs. Carolyn M. Alden, who for years has successfully
carried on such an institute in Providence, R. I. A beautiful plan for a
building, incorporating the old Spanish idea of the interior court, has
been prepared by Mr. Hunt, a promising young architect of Los An-
geles. In this court instruction in the many out-of-door branches of the
Kindergarten course will be given. The genial character of the Los
Angeles climate will allow this to be made a prominent feature.
The new building, in process of erection at the west end of Adams
street, on what is commonly known as " the Triangle," will be finished
by October, and the institute will then be dedicated to its noble use.
Mrs. Alden's success is already assured, as she is warmly and gener-
ously supported by many of the advanced thinkers of her adopted
home. — Margaret M. Fette, Los Angeles, Cal., Jtine, i8gj.
ToPOLOBAMPO, Mex., May 5, 1893.
Editors Kindergarten Magazine: — You will no doubt be sur-
prised to hear that even in this hidden nook in glorious Mexico, the
good work is going on. Under the auspices of the Credit Foncier Com-
pany a free Kindergarten was established in December, 1892. The col-
ony here aims at being cooperative, and as a matter of course the Kin-
dergarten should be free. We have sixteen children enrolled at this
camp on the beautiful Bay of Topolobampo. It is our experimental sta-
tion in this line. On the Mochis, one of our other camps, we have more
children, and as soon as we have the necessary school building, and
have trained another teacher, a Kindergarten will be opened there.
The Kindergarten is a prime necessity for our colony, — for by what
other method could we train children to become good cooperators, un-
selfish, loving, industrious, and skillful? As yet we have only colonists'
children in training, but I hope we may soon be enabled to gather into
our fold the children of the natives. These children are bright, with
open eyes for nature's beauties, and with souls sweet and responsive.
What if we have for our dwelling place only the rough stone wall, with
natural floor? Have we not brightened it up with mats woven by skill-
ful Indian fingers, and all the pictures available? Chief among the pic-
tures is "Uncle Froebel's," framed with paper folding, and that of A. K.
Owen, founder of our colony. For all those not calloused by the expe-
riences of life, the loveliest spot in camp is the Kindergarten, and to be
deprived from participating in it for even one hour is the greatest pun-
ishment for our little ones. The Mexican authorities (the prefect and
superintendent of instruction), on a visit to the colony, saw the Kinder-
garten. Never having seen anything of the kind, it was a revelation to
them. The superintendent of education, who rules over one-third of
74 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the territory of the state, told me to learn Spanish as soon as possible,
that I might go to the seat of government and start a training school.
I think our Kindergarten is the only one in our state (Sinaloa), and per-
haps the fourth or fifth m the whole country. Mexico is far behind in
the stride of civilization. The people have few needs, and are therefore
contented and happy. — Adelaide Klueber.
Mr. Franklin Adams, of the Kansas State Historical Society, has
presented us with a photograph of the colored children's Kindergarten
of Topeka. Forty-five typical curly heads and double the number of
shining eyes look out from the picture, eliciting the supremest interest.
Some of the children are holding up pieces of their work, while the ba-
bies are fondling the colored balls. The Kindergarten is one of two
which have been established by the Topeka Kindergarten Association,
of which Mrs. Hunt is president. The teachers are students in Miss
Dolittle's Topeka training school. The children in this Kindergarten
number over forty. The establishment of this particular Kindergarten
has been chiefly due to the missionary work of Rev. Charles M. Sheldon,
of the Central Congregational Church of Topeka.
The St. Louis Society of Pedagogy has reorganized its plan of work
for the coming year, providing sections for special study in the follow-
ing lines: pedagogics (including the science and art of education), psy-
chology (rational and experimental), ethics (theoretical and practical),
literature, history, science, art. Kindergarten, and observation of child
life. The last-named sections of art and Kindergarten are directed re-
spectively by Misses Amelia Fruchte and Mary C. McCulloch.
The Columbus (O.) Kindergarten Association has sent out a very
attractive circular of its work for the coming year. Mrs. L. W. Treat
serves another year as the general director of the training school, Miss
Alice Tyler superintendent, assisted by Miss Elizabeth Osgood. The
Misses Tyler and Osgood spent part of the Summer in Chicago, and
made many friends among the Kindergartners.
The Southern Kindergarten Association of Jacksonville, Fla., opens
a regular training class this month, under the principalship of Mrs. O.
E. Weston, assisted by Miss Lulu Cassel, both of Chicago. A most ex-
cellent schedule of work is offered by the association, and will no doubt
meet the needs of many Southern workers, who have heretofore been
compelled to come North for study.
Mr. and Mrs. W. N. Hailman entertained a party of Kindergarten
guests at their ideal home in La Porte, Ind., at the close of the Educa-
tional Congress. A happy evening was spent in games and songs in
the model Kindergarten room, interspersed with earnest conversations
and the meeting of students and friends invited to participate in the
evening.
FIELD NOTES. 75
One of the most attractive commencement programs which have
reached us is that of the Western Normal College, Lincoln, Neb. A
handsome brown-sienna engraving of the buildings and invitation to the
exercises is put upon a rose-colored background, with fine effect. Miss
Bertha Montgomery, of the Kindergarten department, adds her compli-
ments.
One of the most encouraging visits paid the Kindergarten Mag-
azine office during this busy Summer was that of Mr. and Mrs. E. O.
Neely, of Guntersville, Ala. Not professional Kindergartners, they have
still caught the spirit of the movement, and speed it along with their
broad interest.
Miss Mary N. Van Wagenen, of New York city, was one of the
most cordially interested visitors to the Kindergarten Congress. Her
quiet, earnest work at training and conducting the Kindergarten is
being felt in many strong workers who go out from her each year.
Mrs. Whitehead, of Rochester, N. Y., reports an extension of the
St. Andrews Kindergarten, to include industrial classes and other lines
of work. One strong Kindergarten soon becomes the center about
which other departments may cluster with mutual advantage.
Miss Hannah D. Maury, supervisor of the Kindergarten depart-
ment of the Pratt Institute, spent several weeks in Chicago, and an-
nounces two additional workers to that department: Mrs. Marion Lang-
zettel, of Rockford, 111., and Miss M. Glidden, of Chicago.
Miss Anna Littell has accepted a position on the faculty of the
Buffalo Free Kindergarten Training School, also the directing of one
of the free Kindergartens. The prospect for this association for the
coming year is full of promise.
Miss Laura P. Charles, of Lexington, Ky., was one of the visitors
to the World's Fair, in August, and rearranged the Kindergarten ex-
hibit from that point, adding much to its import by so doing.
Miss Mabel McKinney, of the Chicago Kindergarten College, has
been engaged as director of the Kindergarten department of the Min-
nesota normal school at St. Cloud, Minn,
Mr. John L. Hughes, of Toronto, addressed the Summer assembly
at Hackley Park, Mich. A teacher writes: "He gave us a live and
awakening lecture."
Miss Amalie Hofer will conduct the. studies of Froebel's " Mother-
Play Book " with the Chicago Free Kindergarten Association the com-
ing year.
An announcement comes from the Kindergarten and Potted Plant
Association, which supports a free Kindergarten in New York city.
Mrs. C. C. Taylor again opens her Kindergarten and school at
No. 99 Lee Avenue, Brooklyn.
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
Foreign Subscriptions, — On all subscriptions'outside of the States,
British Columbia, Canada, and Mexico, add forty cents (40 cents) for
postage, save in case of South Africa, outside of the postal union, which
amounts to 80 cents extra on the year's numbers.
Many training schools are making engagements for next year's
special lectures through the Kindergarten Literature Co. We are in
correspondence with many excellent Kindergarten specialists in color,
form, music, primary methods, literature, art, etc.
Young Mothers should early learn the necessity of keeping on hand
a supply of Gail-Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk for nursing
babies, as well as for general cooking. It has stood the test for thirty
years. Your grocer and druggist sell it.
Child-Garden Samples. — Send in lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
Remember some child's birthday with a gift of CJiild-Garden, only $1
per year.
Always — Send your subscription made payable to the Kindergarten
Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago, 111., "either by money order,
express order, postal note, or draft. (No foreign stamps received.)
Portraits of Froebel. — Fine head of Froebel; also Washington, Lin-
coln, and Franklin; on fine boards, 6 cents each, or ten for 50 cents.
Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago.
Always. — Our readers who change their addresses should imme-
diately notify us of same and save the return of their mail to us. State
both the new and the old location. It saves time and trouble.
umber
a
Always. — Subscriptions are stopped on expiration, the last n„...^
being marked, "With this number your subscription expires," and
return subscription blank inclosed.
All inquiries concerning training schools, supplies, literature, song
books, lectures, trained Kindergartners, etc., will be freely answered by
the Kindergarten Literature Co.
Send for our complete catalogue of choice Kindergarten literature;
also give us lists of teachers and mothers who wish information con-
cerning the best reading.
A '\
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VL— OCTOBER, 1893.— No. 2.
DIRECTING THE SELF-ACTIVITY OF THE
CHILD.
T is such a rare thing to find any lack of activity
in the healthy child, that, its promotion seems
to mv mind rather unnecessary; but there is
greai need of the proper development and
guidance of the child's self-activity. Activity
undirected results in restless mischief. Self-
^^^^^^="— activity is an expression of the child's own
endeavor, and to wisely direct it to the child's advantage is
worthy of our deepest thought and most earnest effort.
Bowen, in his recent book on Froebel, reminds us that
Froebel urges from the very first that the senses should be,
as far as possible, exercised as organs of the mind, and the
activities should be made expressions of mind, or at least
kept in close association with ideas. Development is pro-
duced by exercise of function and use of faculties, and neg-
lect and disuse lead to weakening or loss of power to use.
This law is absolute in both animal and human life. What
can be done with the individual depends, first, upon the
latent ability; and secondly, upon the chances of develop-
ment through environment and careful training. Froebel
also seeks to give the young child experience, rather than
instruction, and to educate him by action rather than by
books or anything in the nature of abstract learning.
Where it is possible, idea and action should be connected.
The kindergarten has done much to relax undue severity
in the methods of the primary school, but it has not done
everything; and to my mind, kindergarten exercises carried
bodily into the primary school, without change or modifica-
78 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
tion to suit the more expanded mind, do far more harm
than good. We all know from Froebel's correspondence
that his last years were devoted to the problem of adapting
the kindergarten principles to the later stages of develop-
ment of the child. It is the spirit of the kindergarten that
we need in the schools beyond, not its numerous exercises
and devices, or its particular methods, which are better
adapted to very young children.
In the same way we need the spirit of art, — the children
guided by reasonable method to good tecJinique, while the
mind and purpose of the teacher are always fixed on the
high and all-'round education of the child.
There are dangers that threaten our "new educational
methods" at the present time. One is the natural out-
growth of freedom after long repression, and the other is a
reaction from this freedom. In many of the primary
schools all over our country at the present time, and even
in the higher grades, freedom has developed into restless,
ever-demanding activity on the part of the children, and
nervous, overworked teachers.
What does this activity of the children demand? little
short of the life and heart's blood of the teacher. This
teacher must be a walking encyclopedia of learning —
though, alas! often a very poor edition. She is told that
she must "be kind to the children"; and for a similar rea-
son that " Mary was kind to the big dog," she humors and
molly-coddles, until the children, surfeited with jelly and
jam, have no honest appetites for anything really whole-
some. Is it any wonder that those who do not realize the
possibilities that result from wiser and better-directed effort
when the child is led to do his part and do it with all his
heart — I say, is it any wonder that they cry, "Is this your
new education? Where is the honest effort to master the
task, to learn the lesson, to overcome the difficulty?" The
effort is often entirely with the teacher, who not only does
all her own work, but, with the best intentions possible, all
the children's too. She spreads before the children a mass of
disconnected and trivial devices whose only claim to notice
DIRECTING THE SELF-ACTIVITY OF THE CHILD. 79
would be their ingenuity in the marvelously bad combina-
tions in form, color, or design. She works hard, and the
children do not. The American taste for novelty — which,
by the way, is the bane of our country — seizes her also, and
a method, even if it prove good, is only temporary. To be
sure, in educational methods there are change and growth;
but it need not be with every new moon; and a really good
method in the presentation of a subject should not be put
aside like the fashion of a year. For example, a teacher
said to me, "I do not teach form that way this year; I have
something later."
Valuable as they are, teachers' institutes and educational
journals are responsible for a vast amount of trash in the
way of papers and articles on methods of teaching color,
number, language, and drawing, — undoubtedly results of
honest but misdirected effort. The teachers most readily
imposed upon by these devices are often the most earnest
and faithful, but ignorant of fundamental principles of jes-
thetics, or lacking in educational training.
The freedom of the child may easily degenerate into
lawlessness and utter lack of self-control, while the teacher
loses forever that delight which children may be led to feel
for law and order. It is hard for nervous, driving Ameri-
cans to comprehend the value or possibilities in slow, all-
'round development, whether it be in art, manual training,
or general school work. Really fine technical results come
only through years of effort on the part of the child, and
under patient guidance on the part of the teacher. The
one grand result of education is individual power; and that
can only come by earnest and ceaseless effort, a self-expres-
sion of the child wisely directed by the teacher.
Another menace to our free educational art methods,
and which might be even more dangerous than too great
freedom, is the advocacy on the part of a few who would
i»^._ the teaching of drawing from the first directly for
accuracy, and to gain this would even go back to the rule
in the hands of the babies, and the ancient fetich of the
straight line. It has been said that the advocates of man-
80 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ual training demanded this return to rigid method and
straight jacket; but I have been delighted to find that the
leaders in manual training disavow any such desire, and
affirm that they, too, feel that accuracy is a matter of
growth, and that the rule in the hands of very young chil-
dren would be more dangerous than useful; and that it is
beyond the mental comprehension and physical ability, at
such an age, to get absolutely accurate results. They also
say that paper folding and cutting, and intelligent free-
hand drawing, are the best possible preliminaries to the use
of the rule. It is cruel and unnatural to begin with labored
and tiresome insistence upon accuracy, though there should
be steady endeavor to lead up to it. As one authority says,
"We should grow it, and by so doing produce at the same
time an ever-increasing appreciation of its value."
The attainment of technical ability through develop-
ment and the intense interest of the student, seems to be
just as psychologically and practically true in the studios
as in the schoolroom. There should be the same study of
the whole before the parts, and the same growth through
constant effort. In an art school, students will waste time
in various ways unless kept busy and their work varied and
made thoroughly interesting. In the ateliers of Paris the
greatest freedom of action prevails. The student may work
all day and every day, if he wishes, or may play with time
and opportunity. The studios are visited — not very often
— by the celebrated artists, who give their time for art's
sake, and who show very slight interest in those who evince
no decided talent. English schools, on the contrary, have
paid instructors who direct the students more definitely to
immediate results. Their curriculum is rigid in its require-
ments, and there is a strong tendency to the repression of
the individual, and the consequent attainment of a set,
academic style. South Kensington is less tight and severe
than years ago, but the technique there, while most pains-
taking, still lacks aesthetic quality and art feeling.
Experience has shown me that if a student — a young
child, young girl, or young man, even an adult — is trained
DIRECTING THE SELF-ACTIVITY OF THE CHILD. 8l
in art through the natural method of discovering, taking in,
assimilating, and expressing to his or her best ability, con-
stant improvement comes by such doing; the student not
dwelling too long on one effort of expression, — that is, one
drawing, — but having the advantage of an interested self-
acting force or self-activity which eagerly presses on with
the unrestrained desire to excel. This evolution of expres-
sion reveals to the teacher the pupil's knowledge, increases
his confidence, and trains muscles, nerves, and organs of
sense to be willing and dependable servants of the mind; it
encourages patience and endeavor, through constant ex-
pression under the control of the will. Such method, how-
ever, requires wise and constant guidance, and it takes a
very patient teacher, especially for the beginners; for the
older the pupil, the more self-conscious and the more
doubtful of his powers.
You would be surprised to see the good results finally
obtained in drawing and color from a class of dressmakers
and milliners, by training them in this way. The object of
their work was the direct practical value, more, perhaps,
than aesthetic culture. In their own technical work they
improved in their ideas of proportion and their ability to
draft patterns, to hang draperies, and to see the beauty of
the curve balanced by the straight fold. Directly, their
training was to gain the power of sketching, in a simple
way, for practical use. The lessons were one hour per
week, three terms, or twelve months in all. The members
of the class were adults, and nearly all of them with little
or no previous training. Their one apologetic remark was,
"I cannot draw a straight line;" and much surprise was ex-
pressed that we did not expect they could. The first point
in their teaching was leading them to see the change of ap-
pearance in simple geometric forms placed in different po-
sitions, and leading out the student's own naive expression,
by language and by drawing, of what they saw. As a help
to freedom of expression in their drawing, exercises were
given to use the muscles, limber the hand, and to secure
free arm movement. The work of the class was only fit for
82 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the waste basket for a long time, and bore the same rela-
tion to fine art rendering, as do the early language lessons
in the primary school to the prize essay or poem. The
whole course was absolutely sequential, and each lesson the
result of careful thought on the part of the teacher. In
connection with geometric forms the class studied objects
based upon such forms, — as simple groups of still life, va-
ried with branches of foliage and flowers. The pencil was
the medium used, with a slight expression of effect in light
and shade, after the class had drawn a long time in simple
outline, carefully studying the objects with a view to their
characteristics, the proportion of the whole, and the rela-
tion of parts to the whole. Finally they dtew draperies,
costumes, bonnets and hats, and colored them in water
color. For home work they designed hats, bonnets, and
costumes. The general feeling of the class at the close of
the course was, that their eyes were opened to see in a way
hitherto unknown, and their feeling for color and its proper
combinations was improved. Technically, the results were
really good, though not beautiful; they were, however, thor-
oughly educational, and helpful in direct professional work.
In my opinion^ had those pupils been trained for immedi-
ate results in the way of correct seeing and rendering, such
results would have been attained at a sacrifice of mental
development, and the rendering would have remained la-
bored and self-conscious to the last.
Another point about their work that was very gratifying
was the constant use of the pencil. I think some do not
realize what really very strong work may be done with this
simple and easily handled medium; it is always so accessi-
ble for quick expression, as well as careful drawing, and
leads so well to pen and ink, and practical illustrative work.
Undoubtedly too many things are attempted in some of
our schools; but I have faith to believe that we shall work
out of that as teachers become better trained and various
subjects of study are combined and coordinated. The reign
of the "three R's " is over, though their advocates may de-
nounce our efforts as "fads." It is to be expected that we
DIRECTING THE SELF-ACTIVITY OF THE CHILD. 83
should not always be understood; but that need not damp
our ardor or check our effort.
This desirable interlacing of various studies has some
dangers, to be sure. Drawing, for example, should be made
use of in other studies, but it should not stop there. In-
deed, for that very reason there should be constant tech-
nical training in drawing. Suppose the "physical culture"
people should tell us that in order to strengthen the lungs,
as many recitations as possible should be in song. What a
pandemonium the schoolroom would be if the children
never had any voice training! In instrumental music think
of the long hours of practice necessary before Chopin or
Beethoven can be proficiently rendered. Suppose the cry
is raised, "The public school is no place to train artists."
True; distinctly as artists it is not the place, neither does
proper art training in the public schools claim that as an
end. As narrow and foolish would it be as to use manual
training in the public schools to turn out carpenters, wood
carvers, and metal workers; yet who would not say that a
method in manual training so opposed to good tecliniqiie as
to make a boy incapable of ever being a good carpenter
was not fundamentally wrong!
When art education became general in the schools of
this country, it was taught on a distinctly geometric basis,
with a decided industrial tendency. It was all the people
were ready for at that time, and in some ways it did distinct
good, though there was not much art in it. Drawing from
the flat, industrial design, and theoretical perspective, were
the main subjects taught, and it is a revolution indeed to
reverse all this, and begin with learning to see from the ob-
ject itself rather than from some one's drawing of that ob-
ject. To study the facts and construction of form with the
direct industrial bearing of free-hand working drawings; to
present the beautiful in ornament and understand the lead-
ing principles of good decoration; to discover the laws of
perspective as applied to common things about us, — in the
schoolroom, the cube, the box, the chair; in the street, the
car track, the chimney, and the tower, — with ever-changing
84 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
point of vision and line of direction, instead of being fixed
upon paper; these stand for some features of art teaching
in the public schools today. In the old days it was theory
before practice; now it is practice before theory. We re-
joice when we see the fresh awakened interest of the pupils;
but to keep this interest, to direct without undue restraint,
and yet not to encourage freedom to the extent of license,
— this is our sacred duty. For a long time in education we
lost the child; now we have found him, and we must look
to ourselves and our methods lest it were not better that he
were lost again.
All the self-activities or self-expression should tend to
art; and yet how can this be possible when general school
subjects are taught all out of harmony with the art idea?
when number lessons, for example, are given in hideous
combinations of shape and color? Of what use to attempt
to strengthen the color sense, or to strive for the uplifting
of the popular taste, if the rest of the time is spent in un-
doing our effort? We must make use of the text-books of
specialists in various studies, in literature, science, and art.
This may be done in some studies by sending children to
the libraries to make abstracts of various authorities, their
research to be discussed in the class or returned as written
work to the teacher. I have found this method very valu-
able in the study of the history of art and historic orna-
ment. In this connection children in the grammar schools
may draw examples of historic ornament in pencil, and pu-
pils in the high school render similar work in charcoal and
water color. I do not myself believe in work in charcoal,
below the high school. It is not suitable for the child in
the schoolroom, and would, I fear, tend to careless, thought-
less work on the part of children and teachers, as it is such
a very loose medium and its proper treatment presents so
many technical difficulties. Schoolroom conditions are too
difficult as to effects in light and shade for the thoughtful
individual expression of the child, and it is taking a back-
ward step to be content with conventional effect. Good
casts and reproductions of famous works of art should hang
DIRECTING THE SELF-ACTIVITY OF THE CHILD. 85
on the schoolroom walls, and photographs be used in the
hands of the teacher and the children to illustrate the les-
son and add greater interest. Manuals and text-books
should be studied by the teacher, and when expedient, used
by the pupils. Because in the old days we crammed our
children with dry, uncomprehended facts, I see no reason
for banishing the proper use of the text-book forever from
our schools. It behooves us as educators to take a broad,
'impartial view of the present situation, and as I said before,
to be careful, in our effort to give freedom to the child,
that we do not injure where we desire to benefit and im-
prove. Pampering the children with literary sweets, weak-
ening the power of self-control and the endeavor to^do
right for right's sake, by the cooing and molly-coddling
which is all too prevalent in many of our schools, we must try
to overcome, or bur progressive and free methods will prove
failures where they might bring great success.
I feel and speak earnestly on this point. Some one must
protest in the name of thousands of overworked teachers
who with mistaken zeal are trying to carry the burden of
school- work on their own shoulders, unmindful that the
children must work also, — in a happy, free way, to be sure,
but with the intention to do their part. It is unreasonable
to expect the average teacher, often with narrow opportu-
nity and environment, to be equal to her great responsibility
without assistance: not in the guise of certain tricks and
devices of presentation to catch the fancy of the child, as
though he were still to be "pleased with a rattle, tickled
with a straw," but help from the best specialists and author-
ities who devote their lives to their subjects. Such assist-
ance should be largely suggestive, allowing scope for the
play of individuality on the part of the teacher and pupil.
I do not mean to be censorious or severe, but it is true that
" Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
A noted scientist said to me not long ago, "Much of the
subject matter taught now in the schools in the name of
'science is the veriest rubbish, and productive of far more
harm than good. A few truths well understood by the chil-
86 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
dren, and the awakening in them of the spirit of investigation
and a love for nature, would be far better. It comes from
the ignorance of the teachers of what is best to teach, and a
desire to bring out, perhaps by analogy, a conclusion on the
part of the children, which being forced on a basis of little
investigation and knowledge, results in false ideas and
statements." It is so in everything; we are not willing to
drop a seed and wait.
When will people give up the wholly erroneous notion
that real attainment in art comes without effort? All the
great artists of the world, past and present, have striven or
are striving. The ideal is ever evading, ever eluding, but
always leading upward and onward. It is wrong for us to
let the child run riot in his freedom; he must work, he must
strive, he must give himself, and it will be returned to him
fourfold. Our duty is to patiently guide, to study his indi-
viduality, leading him this way or that way according to his
needs, and while gently guiding, to be patient for results.
We are pioneers in this movement, and we must not lose
heart or courage. We must look upon art education as
something more than training in modeling, in drawing, in
painting, or any technical art expression, but rather the
development in the American people of the art idea
through the children; the cultivation of the sense of the
beautiful, which should be a part of their mental growth to
their spiritual uplifting. And remember, also, that for us
must it have been especially written —
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
It is hard for Americans to wait.
Hannah Johnson Carter.
Philadelpliia, Pa.
[This paper was read by Professor Hannah Carter of the Drexel In-
stitute of Philadelphia, before a joint session of the Manual and Art
Training and Kindergarten Congresses, held at Chicago in July.]
SOME CHILDREN'S BOOKS THAT HAVE STOOD
THE TEST OF THIRTY YEARS.
IN the little Wisconsin town of Wilton, last Arbor Day,
the children, in making their selection of names for the
trees they planted, chose these three: "Washington,
Longfellow, and Jane Andrews," — names which must
have embodied for them some real personality, and thus
secured their affection and loyalty. Last autumn a class of
children in Portland, Ore., met at the house of their teacher,
for a " Jane Andrews afternoon," to talk about this friend of
theirs, and her books, making her one of themselves for
those pleasant hours. And yet none of these persons —
teacher or pupils — had ever seen Miss Andrews, and it was
only through her books that she had become a real person
to them. This has made me think that some account of
my sister, and how these books came into being, might in-
terest her many friends all over the country, who know her
merely through the children of her thought.
Through all her life my sister had a great fondness for
children, and a power of winning their confidence and love.
But she had never thought of putting into writing the
stories with which she often fascinated them, till in i860,
after intimate association with the children in her little
school (in our old home in Newburyport, Mass.), "the
stories grew of themselves," as she said. These stories ap-
peared in 1862, under the title of "The Seven Little Sisters
who Live on a Round Ball that Floats in the Air." This
was soon followed by "Each and All," carrying on the story
of the "Seven Sisters."
I have always thought that we people who grow up on
the seacoast feel our connection with all the nations of the
world, the unity of races, more as a matter of instinct and
circumstance than of reason.
6b THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The middle sea contains no crimson dulse;
Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view.
Along the shore my hand is on its pulse,
And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew.
To add to this natural tendency from position, was the
fact that our ancestry on one side belonged to the merchant
marine of New England; and many a tale of their adven-
tures by sea and land, in strange countries and among
strange people, were the fireside entertainment with which
our mother beguiled the long winter evenings, while the
distinct sound of the sea lent reality to the tale. And to
her stories were added our father's rich store of old Scot-
tish and English legends and ballads, and the stories of old
New England, of which he had an endless store. Thus we
grew up with a wide interest and a realization of things be-
yond our sight. The great outside world was peopled for
us with real beings, not the dim shades which many chil-
dren glean from second-class geographies. In after years,
looking back on these stories of our childhood, we under-
stood that only that which is endowed with life and reality
is capable of interesting a child and bearing a vital part in
his education. We learned, also, how the bent and interests
of one's life are always influenced, and often determined, by
the education of early years.
When my sister graduated from the normal school of
West Newton, Mass. (now the Framington normal school),
in her valedictory she first put into writing her ideas on the
teaching of geography, — the same ideas which she after-
wards carried out in teaching the children of her little
school, — and in the writing of "The Seven Little Sisters,"
which grew out of that teaching. In this she was led, as all
true lovers of children are, by the thoughts of the children
themselves, stimulating her thought and enabling her to
give her "Seven Sisters" a real personality. "The Brown
Baby" is just as real a baby, to many a child, as her own
baby sister in the cradle by her side; and many a child with
her sled, longs for Agoonack's brisk little dogs, and looks
with added interest at the dogs in the Eskimo Village at
SOME children's BOOKS. 89
the World's Fair, or the seals in the zoological gardens at
Philadelphia, because they are old friends of hers through
these stories.
In a report of an entertainment given some years ago at
the Perkins Institute for the Blind, we find that even there
the "Seven Sisters" have found their way. I will quote the
account as it appeared in the Boston Transcript -aX the time:
"While Mr. Hawkes was speaking, the little kinder-
gartners had been diligently modeling in clay; and when
he had ceased they gave an exercise called 'The Seven Sis-
ters.' The first tiny creature showed a round ball, and told
us that it was a large ball that could float through space,
and had men and trees on it; in short, it was the earth, which
contained the homes of the Seven Sisters. The next child
told of the little dark sister who lived in a warm country
and ate cocoanuts, and she showed a cocoanut. The next
child told of the Eskimo sister, who dwelt in a hut, and
exhibited a clay hut. The fourth one described the life of
an Arab and her country, and had a successful model of
an ostrich. Then a little girl told of the Swiss maiden who
dwells high on the Alps, and of her brother the wood
carver, and held up a bowl and spoon which were like the
little Swiss girl's. The sixth girl showed some chopsticks
with which the little Chinese girl eats, and the seventh told
a very pretty story of the African sister, who wears brace-
lets and anklets of gold. The last of the Seven Sisters was
the German maiden who lives on the Rhine. Then the sixth
girl explained that though the Seven Sisters lived on differ-
ent parts of the globe, they were all under the loving care
of one Father."
Quite a number of these stories grew out of real events.
The story of "Louise, the Child of the Rhine," had its rise
in the account a German emigrant gave my sister of his
early life of hardship not far from Chicago, after happy
days of prosperity near the Rhine. In "Each and All,"
sequel to the "Seven Sisters," Agoonack's wonderful voy-
age on the ice island is modeled after the real adventures
of the crew of the Polaris. The little figures of clay, in
90 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Christmas Time for Louise ("Each and AH"), were really
modeled by some little children in Kansas, when a little
circle of educated people tried to bring something beside
the toil and privations of pioneer life into their children's
lives. The spirit of all this is brought out in the story of
Louise.
Geographical plays grew naturally out of her work in
the little school which she carried on in our house for many
years, and each play was enthusiastically acted by her
school children.
To "The Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago to
Now" — probably the most widely known of all her books
excepting the "Seven Sisters" — she gave the most careful
study, and it remained longest in her mind before commit-
ting it to paper. She cared greatly that each fact should
be accurate as well as interesting. Her respect for children
was too sincere for her to give them anything but the best
work. She wished to make the noblest traits of all times
and nations helpful to the boy and girl, of today. The rul-
ing lesson which her "Boys" teach is embodied in the clos-
ing sentence: "It is not what a boy has, but what he is, that
makes him valuable to the world and the world valuable to
him."
The "Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children," is a
collection of the articles which appeared in The Young Folks
and Riverside Magazi7ie, shortly after the publication of the
"Seven Sisters," and wei*e collected by my sister Emily and
myself after the death of my sister Jane. She had intended
to do this herself, and had already told me of the title
which we have used. In this book, also, there are many
articles which I can easily place. The sixty-two little tad-
poles lent joy to my childhood. "What the Frost Giants
Did to Nannie's Run," really happened to some friends of
ours in the early days of Washington Territory. "Sea
Life" is founded on the shipwreck of my sister Caroline m
the Caribbean Sea, and "Little Sunshine" is a real child.
The same story was told by Colonel Higginson in The
Young Folks, under the title of "Carrie's Shipwreck."
SOME CHILDREN S BOOKS.
91
But the book which contains the most of personal inci-
dent, and which is much less widely known than the others,
since it has not found its way into the schools, is "Only a
Year, and What It Brought." The story tells how a
thoughtless but warm-hearted girl learned the joy of lead-
ing a helpful life, by not only accepting, but putting her
whole heart into, the opportunity which came to her.
"Something to do, and the power to do it," I remember,
was my sister's answer, when asked her idea of a happy
life. On page iii is a description of my sister's room, as
she fitted it up for herself when about sixteen years old.
"Katie's Auction" is one which my sister really conducted
for an old black woman in "Guinea," the African suburb of
our town. The Thanksgiving party, in which the portraits
of the ancestors are the only guests, brings in the old stories
of our fireside when we were children. The flood in the
river, and the little Irish baby left motherless, are all real
events, as are many other facts in the book, which my sister
cared to bring together to illustrate the beauty and nobility
of our everyday life that "thanks God for the opportunity
offered and accepted."
Margaret Andrews Allen.
Mad is 071, Wis. -
SLOYD FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, AS CON-
TRASTED WITH THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM
OF MANUAL TRAINING.
I HAVE been invited to say a few words about sloyd,
and especially to consider in what ways its methods
are different from those of the Russian system of man-
ual training.
Although I believe in educational manual training for all
ages, I have concentrated my thought chiefly on work for
all boys and girls in elementary schools (children of eleven
to fifteen years). The reason for this is, that the kinder-
garten and primary schools have been well supplied with
occupations and the technical high schools have long been
established.
The question is often asked, "Why use the word 'sloyd'?
Would not a name more familiar to American ears, such as
manual training, or carpentry, answer the purpose just as
well?" It might be replied that this system had its origin
in Sweden, where it has been practiced for over twenty
years, and that the word "sloyd" at once suggests its his-
tory, and gives credit where credit is due; also that the very
fact of its being an unusual word attracts attention and
stimulates inquiry and study.
But the main reason for retaining the name "sloyd" lies
in the fact that the word has no equivalent in the English
language. The expression "manual training" is too indefi-
nite, as it may be manual only, and given only for industrial
purposes, while the term "carpentry" entirely fails to ex-
plain the full and true purpose of sloyd.
The word "sloyd" means manual training for the sake of
general development, physical, mental, and moral, and it
also means that kind of hand work which will best stimulate
the right kind of head work; and as this word alone sets
forth the true aim of this system, it seems desirable that it
be retained.
SLOYD AND MANUAL TRAINING CONTRASTED. 93
The general aim of sloyd, then, is the moral, mental, and
physical development of the pupil, the mental development
being secured by help of the physical. In other words, a
definite effort is made to provide such manual work as will
arouse a mental enthusiasm, the value of which will be felt
in all the intellectual work of the school. I am aware of the
fact that this is the aim of all truly educational manual
training. The difference is found here in means and meth-
ods.
The question now is. What are the best methods? Obvi-
ously that method is best which secures the greatest interest
of the pupil, independently of the teacher, and which pro-
vides a progressive series of exercises of the greatest educa-
tional value physically and mentally. The methods of the
Swedish sloyd system are based upon the following ideas:
1st. The exercises should follow in a progressive order,
from the easy to the difficult, from the simple to the com-
plex, without any injurious break, and with such carefully
graded demands on the powers of both mind and hand that
the development of the two shall be equal and simultaneous.
This duality of progression is an essential feature of sloyd.
It cannot be shown in any course of manual work; nothing
but careful observation of the child's gain of power in many
directions will show the result aimed at.
2d. The exercises should admit of the greatest possible
variety; they must avoid any tendency either to too great
mental tension, confusion, ox physical strain. There is a dan-
ger here, not always recognized; for it takes a careful ob-
server and a true teacher to discover that a model may be
at the same time too easy for the hand and too difficult for
the mind; or in other words, the hand may be well trained
by a model which gives the mind little or nothing to do.
3d. The exercises should result in the making of a use-
ful article from the very outset, — that is to say, an article
the use of which is appreciated by the child. This arouses
and sustains the child's interest in his work, helps him to
understand the reason for every step; for he can see to
what these steps lead. It makes him careful in his work, for
Vol. 6-7
94 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
he soon learns that poor work will spoil a model which is
worth something. The child's self-respect and pride are
also aroused; he is not only learning to make, but is actually
making. He has joined the great army of producers, and
he has before him tangible proofs of his progress. If the
child is encouraged to make these things for others, it helps
to develop unselfishness. Much of the moral value of sloyd
centers in this " useful" model. Some persons, ignorant of
its true purpose, have thought it owed its place in this sys-
tem to its industrial value only. But the truth is, that the
useful model is valued above all for the mental and moral
development secured by use of the creative faculty.
4th. Sloyd seeks also to cultivate the aesthetic sense by
combining in the models beauty of form and proportion
with utility. It has been said by one interested in manual
training, that "The pupil must be led to see and feel the
simple beauty of proportion, of harmony of parts, as well as
grace of outline, elements o^ beauty which are a direct out-
growth of the useful, as well as the beauty of mere orna-
ment which is sometimes more or less externally added.
For this reason sloyd attaches much importance to the free-
hand modeling, in wood, of solid forms." Throughout this
system, as in the kindergarten, the sense of beauty is re-
garded as an important factor in education, and an eye for
symmetry and grace, although but rarely developed, has
been proved to have great practical value even for an arti-
san.
5th. Every model should be so constructed that it can
be drawn' by the pupils themselves, not copied or traced.
Drawing is an essential feature of sloyd as applied in Bos-
ton, and should always be preliminary to the making of the
model.
6th. For children who are old enough for the regular
sloyd, it is believed that the knife should be the first and
fundamental tool. There are several reasons for this which
will be mentioned later.
These are some of the ideas which have served to guide
the arrangement of the models which I have the honor of
SLOYD AND MANUAL TRAINING CONTRASTED. 95
showing in Chicago. It should be mentioned that sloyd
models are always to be adapted to the needs of different
localities.
A radical difference between the Russian and the Swed-
ish system is, that the Russian methods are based upon the
idea of teaching the use of certain tools by making incom-
plete articles, with the belief that out of such teaching will
come good educational results, even without much attention
to the special needs and capacity of the growing child,
either by the choice or the sequence of tools or exercises.
The Swedish system, on the other hand, is based upon
the Froebelian idea of the harmonious development of all
the powers of the child, tools and exercises being chosen
with reference to this end, and all merely mechanical meth-
ods being carefully avoided. The sloyd teacher does not
say, "Now, I will teach this boy to saw, and he shall con-
tinue to saw until he can saw well," regardless of monotony
or the too-prolonged use of the same muscles. The prob-
lem of the sloyd teacher is to find the tool, whether knife
or saw or plane, and also the series of exercises, best adapted
to the present need, not of man, but of the average pupil,
and also to vary or alternate the tools and to graduate the
exercises with constant reference to the growing capacity,
the formative age, and to the various activities of body and
mind.
It should be said right here, that while the methods of
sloyd are less like those of the mechanic than those of the
Russian system, — not aiming at immediate technical skill,
— there is abundant proof that the results of a thorough
sloyd training will be found to include all that is gained
even mechanically by the Russian methods, plus a far more
ge?ierous ge?ieral development, including greater delicacy of
observation and of manipulation. The sloyd course now be-
ing used in Boston calls for the use of forty-five different
tools in the making of seventy-two exercises applied in
thirty-one models. Among these exercises are fifteen dif-
ferent joints.
Another difference is seen in the importance which sloyd
96 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
attaches to the use of the knife as the first tool given to the
child, regarding it as the most familiar and least mechanical
of tools, which gives a development of the muscles of hand
and wrist peculiar to itself, — a development which modern
psychologists teach us is also conducive to the physical de-
velopme?it of the brain, the familiarity of the tool as well as
its danger making it possible to secure constant concentra-
tion of thought upon the exercise at the outset.
Again, sloyd methods are unlike Russian methods in
giving great prominence to form study and in the method by
which all form work is made, — methods which are quite un-
like those of the carpenter, because the first care of the
sloyd teacher is that the muscular sense of form be devel-
oped in the child, rather than that the curves be accom-
plished in the quickest and easiest way.
Again, the exercises o*f sloyd furnish greater variety than
those of the Russian system, and the fact that small models
can be finished in a reasonably short space of time helps to
increase and maintain a healthy interest and to train the
sense of completeness which is so unfortunately wanting in
many educational processes.
Again, sloyd methods provide more carefully, than is
true of some others, for the physical development, by a
judicious choice and sequence of tools, positions, and exer-
cises.
Finally, and most prominent of all differences between
the systems, is the insistence of sloyd upon the use of the
completed model in place of the prevalent Russian exercise
with tools. The reasons for this faith in the educational
value of the completed, useful model are identical with those
which have so largely influenced modern pedagogical meth-
ods in other departments of education, that the phrase has
now driven the word spelling book out of school and the
writing lesson is no longer confined to the copy book.
Sloyd demands a trained teacher. It is easily seen that
the successful carrying out of these ideas depends upon the
teacher's comprehension of the object of the teaching, and
of the capacity and needs of the child, as well as upon his
SLOYD AND MANUAL TRAINING CONTRASTED. 97
ability to impart the knowledge he has acquired. A
teacher is not necessarily possessed of the manual skill of
an expert, but he must understand childish intelligence, and
know how to lead the child in his work. I am happy to
state that a large number of Boston teachers are now study-
ing the subject of manual training, and that over ninety-five
are taking a normal course in sloyd.
It is not always enough that a child should be told how
to use a tool. The teacher must oversee the work of each
child to make sure he has a clear idea of what he has tp do.
Sloyd puts much emphasis on the value of individual in-
struction, but it must not be supposed that by individual in-
struction is meant a constant watchfulness of each pupil,
much less that the teacher shall take the work into his own
hands and give the pupil too much help. A good teacher
will not teach too much, even if he has but one pupil.
Class instruction can be given as regards much of the man-
ual work, — drawing, positions at the bench, the use, ad-
justment, and care of tools, etc.; but the best results of sloyd
will not be attained unless a teacher is able also to oversee
individual work enough to satisfy himself that his pupil has
a clear idea of what he is to do, that he understands the
reasons for it, and is not working without thought,' mechan-
ically following half-understood directions, and so losing the
intellectual value of the exercises. To do this it will be
seen that classes must not be too large. Allowance must
be made for difference in physical and mental capacity. It
is no matter if two-thirds of the class are in advance of the
other third, provided that each pupil receive as much as he
can digest. This is not a lesson in memorizing, a test of
which is easily applied; here is an attempt to appeal to the
perception, the judgment, the ingenuity, the reason, by
means of the hand^nd eye, the visidle results of which may
be good while the unseen object 0/ it all is unattai?ied. Spe-
cial individual care, therefore, is necessary to make sure
that the intellectual development of the child is secured,
and teachers must be constantly warned against the danger
of satisfactio7i zvith mere ntamial skill.
g8 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
True sloyd is taught only when, by the exercise of many
faculties, the mind is led step by step to careful and accu-
rate thinking.
Sloyd, like the kindergarten, has suffered much from in-
adequate presentation, and the public have been made more
or less familiar with its outward form while wholly ignorant
of the aims and psychological basis of its methods; it is for
this reason, that while a certain number of persons are al-
ways to be found who are attached to the sloyd models
merely because they are useful, others equally unthinking
are suspicious of the same models because they are not
those of the carpenter shop, for which reason they are char-
acterized as impracticable. Neither of these classes of per-
sons is in a position to do justice to the subject, because
neither of them understands tlie aim of the system, or the
significance of the exercises embodied in the models, each
one of which holds its place in a progressive course of work
for a definite reason and as an essential step in the ladder.
It will be seen that although sloyd models may be adapted
to the differing needs of times and places, they must not be
taken bodily out of the course, — transported, and even arbi-
trarily combined with other systems and methods, whereby
they at once lose all their educational value; it is by such
rough handling of its outward symbols that sloyd has suf-
fered as its mother the kindergarten did before it. Let us
hope that a better understanding of its methods and of the
principles upon which they rest may commend it to stu-
dents of the philosophy of education.
GusTAF Larson,
Principal Sloyd Training School.
Bosto7i, Mass.
THE KINDERGARTEN SECTION OF THE INTER-
NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS.
Tk HE Kindergarten Section of the International Edu-
cational Congress, under the direction of Commis-
sioner Wm. T. Harris, enjoyed three forenoon ses-
sions, July 26, 27, and 28. Mrs. Ada M. Hughes, of
Toronto, served as president of this department, and Amalie
Hofer, of Chicago, as secretary. The opening address of
the president was published in full in the September num-
ber of this magazine. The topics of the department were
carefully drawn up by Dr. Harris and his special commit-
tees, and we present them in full here for the future gui-
dance of kindergartners. It will be noted that every point
of view of the various essential topics is exposed. This
outline would form an excellent program for the closer
study of clubs or individuals during the coming year.
^ Every kindergartner has opportunity to answer questions
and objections along these same lines. Study them out and
be prepared to meet them intelligently and permanently.
The first general topic was on the essential character-
istics of the kindergarten as distinguished from the primary
school, and the practical adjustment of the former to the
latter. The thesis was divided into general heads, as fol-
lows: I. The essential characteristics of a kindergarten.
2. Its gifts and occupations. 3. Should the kindergarten
attempt to teach reading or writing? 4. Should the plays
and games, which Froebel invented, be modified? should
substitutions be made for any of them, or others be added?
5. What is the place and value of the song in the kinder-
garten, and the degree of dramatic element which should
accompany the song?
Among the leading kindergartners who discussed these
topics were the following: Mrs. A. H. Putnam, Miss Sarah
Stewart, Miss Constance Mackenzie, Miss Mary McCulloch,
100 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and Dr. Hailman. Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper presented a
strong paper on the Organic Union of the Kindergarten
and Primary School, showing why this union should take
place. Mr. Hailman added his own experience and ten
years of experiment showing ho%v it had been done in the
case of the La Porte schools. He voiced the sentiment of
all sound kindergarten workers when he closed his remarks:
The only organic connection is neither more nor less than
the infusing of the kindergarten spirit — not its materials — -
into the primary and grade departments. The program
outlined this topic as follows: i. The organic union of
kindergarten and primary school. 2. What modifications
in the primary school are necessary or desirable in order to
adapt it to continue the work of the kindergarten and reap
the advantages of the training already received? 3. What
are the essential differences in discipline and instruction
that should characterize the primary school and distinguish
it from the kindergarten?
The second session took up the discussion of the kin-
dergarten training under the following headings, which
were thoroughly handled by Mrs. Eudora Hailman, Mrs. ,
J. N. Cfouse, and others: i. Preparation of the kindergart-
ner for her work. 2. Should all kindergarten teachers be
required to pass examination in secondary studies, includ-
ing such as algebra, geometry, modern or ancient languages,
general history, natural science, psychology, and English
literature or the literature of the native country? 3. What
training in Froebel's philosophy should be prescribed in a
professional course of training for the kindergartner? 4.
What work in the gifts and occupations, the plays and
games, theoretically and practically, should be required for
the graduate from a kindergarten training school? 5. Edu-
cative value of hand work in the kindergarten. 6. Cautions
to be observed as to the limits of certain of the occupations,
— such, for example, as pricking paper, and other work that
is liable to strain the eyes if too long continued. 7. The
Froebel system of drawing, in contrast to free-hand draw-
ing. 8. The characteristic mental and physical conditions
KINDERGARTEN SECTION OF THE CONGRESS. lOI
nition of his power to enjoy, of his power to do, of the
of the first seven years of childhood, which determine the
special educative value of hand work in the kindergarten.
The third session of the congress covered, in substance,
the following topics: i. To what extent is the use of sym-
bolism justifiable in the kindergarten? 2. Is there any va-
lidity to the claim often urged, that the child under seven
years of age is to be distinguished in psychological devel-
opment from the child of more than seven years of age,
through his greater dependence upon symbolic modes of
instruction? 3. Is the distinction a valid one, between sym-
bolic and conventional studies, conventional studies being
understood to mean reading, writing, written arithmetic,
and appliances useful in intercommunication, but not em-
blematic or symbolic of a second and higher meaning? 4.
What should be the character of the stories told in the kin-
dergarten, and to what extent should stories be told?
The topic of "symbolism" was discussed b}' INIiss Eliza-
beth Harrison, Mrs. Hailman, Professor Earl Barnes, and
others. The eminently practical outline of the various
theses brought much grist to the surface, and succeeded in
classifying the more general work of the preceding special
congress.
THE WHOLE CHILD.
L
EVERY great educational movement has originated
in the grown-up person laying aside his or her
personal opinions, traditions, preferences, and hon-
estly trying to look at things from the child's
standpoint, — literally denying himself or herself, and be-
coming "as a little child."
This study has been its own reward, for it has brought
with it the revelation that grown-up people are but echoes
of what they might have been, as well as the other fact that
humanity is not a constant fixed quantity, but an ever-un-
folding, infinite equation, or, as Lord Macaulay states it —
"We may regard the generations of men as one individual
continually learning."
If humanity as we know it is not a constant quantity,
then it is not a finality, but simply a process; it is not fruit
or flower, but seed and embryo; it is not the majestic King
Charles oak, but the scrubby, poverty-stricken half shrub,
half tree of the Arctic regions, only suggestive of its possi-
bility if given fairer conditions. Granted humanity to be
an unfolding equation, so must be its education, or the in-
struction provided for its children.
This brings us directly to the question, What is educa-
tion? And shall the state put the whole boy, the whole
girl, to school, or only a part of it? If the latter, who shall
decide what part? Is education information, the acquisi-
tion of data, facts and phenomena, ability to read, write,
and cipher? or is it these and more? Was there an educa-
tion prior to the advent of the printing press and the spell-
ing book? If so, what was it? and has the present im-
proved on it so very much?
Who built the world's cathedrals? Who developed the
arch and constructed the bridges and roadways of the Ro-
THE WHOLE CHILD. IO3
man Empire? Whence did the poets, saints, heroes, and
statesmen of the classic and the middle ages derive their
inspiration to right living and noble doing? Who initiated
Moses and Solon into the study of law, so that their deci-
sions sway all the courts of justice in Europe and America
to the present hour? Whence the learning of the three
Hebrew children, the wisdom of the fishermen of Galilee
and the carpenter of Nazareth? How knew these men let-
ters, having never learned? These are race questions;
some time or other they confront each thinking man and
woman. Every fresh cycle of history, every new turn in
the road of human unfoldment, every collision of spirit
striving after its God-consciousness, necessarily must rrieet
and answer them.
The pendulum swings first to this side, then to that;
now to the extreme of book learning, classic lore, and scho-
lastic training, where the mind is fed only on the ''ipse dixit
of authority," then into the recesses of the mountains, away
from the moods and haunts of men. Into the frolicsome
arins of Mother Nature it swings, only to bring forth to our
admiring gaze a shepherd lad like David, the sweet singer
of Israel; or Giotto the father of Italian painting; or a St.
Catharine of Sienna, the wool dyer's daughter, at whose
wishes thrones trembled and the proudest monarchs of
Christendom did obeisance; or a Tintoretto, a dyer's son
whose vision of Paradise has for hundreds of years been
the despair and admiration of lesser men; or a common
day-laborer like Robert Burns, who convulses English aris-
tocracy with a new standard of manhood; or a nation's sav-
ior like Joan of Arc, who left milking the cows to lead the
armies of France; or a great inventor like Stephenson, who
first turned the world upside down with his mechanics and
then learned to sign his name; or a peasant painter like
Jean Francois Millet, whose "Angelus" commands the mar-
kets of two continents.
Mystified at the seeming paradox, one asks. What is
the relation between scholasticism and education? between
earning- a living- and doine noble deeds? between art and
104 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
labor? between genius and a mediocre uniformity? be-
tween Benjamin Franklin's utilitarianism and the divine
philosophy of William Wordsworth? between working for
food, clothing, and shelter, and "living by admiration, faith,
and love"? Should education limit itself to one or the
other side of this equation, or should it include both? Is
there an eternal law that man cannot, shall not, dare not,
must not live by bread alone? Has the soul a right to its
nourishment as well as the body? And w^iat is soul nour-
ishment?
'Says Froebel, "Education should lead and guide man to
clearjiess concerning himself and in himself; to peace with
nature and unity with God." Says Herbert Spencer, "Edu-
cation is preparation for complete living, which is the^r^^
exercise of all our faculties."
Let us look at this subject, then, in an all-'round way,
from the standpoint of the artist, the poet, and the philoso-
pher.
It goes for the saying, that the product of an education
based on "admiration, faith, and love" is always an art prod-
uct, a work of art. But this art may express itself in song,
in picture, in play, in brave lives bravely lived, or in discov-
ery and invention, — something by which the stupid is re-
deemed, drudgery glorified, the commonplace caused to
shine with a new light, and life made worth living; some-
thing by which a light that never was on sea or land is
thrown around ordinary circumstances and people.
The product of food, clothing, and shelter is itself —
always and ever itself — an imitative externality; "The
primrose by the river's brink" is always, to it, "a common
primrose, nothing more." Now the child is father to the
man. Kill out, starve, repress the art imagination, the po-
etic instinct, the play impulse, the fairy dreamland of child-
hood, and the world may go a-whistling for its Robert
Burns and Jenny Linds.
Every word Mr. Ruskin says of the art of man is equally
true of the art of the child. In "Two Paths" we read,
"Perfect art is that which proceeds from the heart, which
THE WHOLE CHILD.- IO5
involves all the noble emotions; associates with these the
head, yet as inferior to the heart; and the hand, yet as in-
ferior to the heart and the head, and thus brings out the
whole man." Again, in "Stones of Venice," he continues:
"All art which is worth its room in the world is art which
proceeds from an individual mind working through instr-
ments which assist but do not supersede the muscular action
of the human hand, upon materials which most tenderly
receive and most securely retain the impressions of such
human labor."
Evidently Mr. Ruskin believes that all art workmanship
for man or boy roots itself in the emotional nature; but in
its expression it includes the exercise of the intellect and
of the play impulse, and culminates in the acquisition of
manual skill. In other words, an art workman cannot be
an ignorant man or woman. But he also insists that an art
product must be the outcome of an individual mind allowed
to express itself freely through a nonresisting material
which will at once "tenderly receive and securely retain the
impress of the human hand"; or as he expresses it in an-
other place, "that the delicate sensibility of the fingers be
not obliterated."
Think over all the materials known, — wood, paper, clay,
cloth, iron, straw, — and decide which of these it was that so
charmed Phidias, Myron, Michael Angelo, Ghiberti, Delia
Robbia, Palissy, Josiah Wedgewood, with every great sculp-
tor, architect, and potter since the world began, — that they
forgot for it their sleep, food, money, fame, the flesh, and
used it as the vehicle for those mighty thoughts which
have placed the laurel crown on the brow of humanity and
made it only a little lower than the angels. Would Olym-
pian Jove, or the Elgin Marbles, or the Venus de Milo, or
the Gates of the Baptistry, or the Choir Boys, ever have
seen the light of day if wood or iron or paper had been
substituted for common clay? No; for these materials
would not have transmitted the same exquisiteness of feel-
ing, the sensibility of human fingers united with the deep,
strong emotions of human hearts.
I06 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Indeed, history recognizes the precious "mud baby" as
the dividing line between the intelligence of the East and
the West, between Pekin and Athens, between a Chinese
automaton and "the hand that rounded the dome of St.
Peter's." When one thinks that the Apollo Belvedere, for
which the late Czar of Russia offered seven millions of gold
roubles, was once a despised "mud baby," and that there
is not money enough in Chicago to buy — broken and muti-
lated as it is — the Olympian Mercury, another "mud baby,"
or to purchase the original statuette of the David, — there
surely must be a commercial value to clay and mud pies,
though Wall Street be ignorant of it and American history
omit it from her ledger.
And what of its political value? This most psychic ma-
terial of nations is at once the treasure-house of their rude
barbaric thoughts and the cradle of the leapt lightning of
their genius. Call the roll from Thermopylae to Gettys-
burg, you will find wherever hearts have been stirred with
lofty aspiration and that peculiar love of freedom that
counts not its life dear unto itself, so it fights the battle of
ideas, — from Mithridates to Savonarola, by these hearts of
oak has the "mud baby" ever been tenderly cherished and
fondly loved.
Little tiny Greece is the least of the countries of Europe,
and no larger than our smallest state; yet she stands for
the light of the intellect and the light of the imagination,
for the cradle of genius, of law, and for the freedom of the
individual to all eternity! Had not Greece been true to
herself, true to her love of "mud babies," where would
America — would Europe — be today? simply in nowhere;
in the darkness of chaos. But this is the external evidence
of art. What of the internal truths of psychology, the
truths of the philosopher? Says Thomas Arnold: "The
old man clogs our early years, and simple childhood comes
at last." Such is the confession of an intellectual life; it
counts itself happy as it recovers its child nature. A simi-
lar experience comes from Thomas Carlyle, when at the
close of life, realizing what of the riches of the imagination
THE WHOLE CHILD. 10/
and the joy of lofty emotions he had been deprived of, he
declares that he would rather he had been taught to draw
than to write, for then fantasy and heart would have been
fed.
One must remember that all truth is made up of para-
doxes, to understand how it is that the feelings, desires,
emotions, energies of the poet, the artist, the seer, are al-
most identical with those of the child; the only difference
is, that one is conscious heart-hunger after what Dante
would call "knowledge of God," while the other is uncon-
scious instinct. The artist uses the clay because of its
quick responsiveness; because it answers so readily to his
slightest thought. He forgets the material in finding him-
self, in realizing his thought.
Not so with the child; his thought is dim and shadowy,
crude and unborn. He scarcely knows what he is going to
turn out; nevertheless the soft, yielding clay charms him,
just as it does the artist. "Why? Because it reveals him to
himself. As the form changes, takes on proportion and
size, a corresponding wonder goes on in the child's mind;
he finds that he is a causing power. He can make and un-
make, build up or destroy "the mud baby"!
To grasp this joy of childhood at finding itself a creative
activity, — a causing intelligence, one must become a child,
and recall his first feelings on making a "snow man," or
even a snowball. The amount of energizing gladness that
arises from the discovery that in him is cause, that he can
change, sends through him a thrill of delight. Is there a
mother who does not know the physiological effect of the
first baby smile, the first glad thump of joy, as, seeking to
exercise its baby activity, it strikes its little fists right and
left, regardless of whom or where it hits? This is part and
parcel of the joy of the child when he pokes his fingers into
clay. With results he has nothing to do; if they come, well
and good; if not, he tries again, undismayed.
Childhood is a process, not a finality; and the products
of childhood are only means to an end, — the end being the
discovery of the child to himself, or self-recognition, recog-
I08 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
gladness and sweetness of being in the body. Why is it
that in the first three years of life the human embryo un-
folds faster, acquires more, learns more, than in the ten suc-
ceeding years? Why, but that it is given its freedom; it is
permitted the exercise of pleasurable sensation; and best
of all, in its kickings and tantrums, in its laughter and tears,
it has the sympathy of those around.
Directly the child reaches the school age all this is with-
drawn; parents change their views; frolicsome ways are
now frowned on, and he is sent to school to keep him still
and get him out of the way. Once there, the activity which
expressed itself in so many ways, — or, as Aristotle puts it,
"in breaking things about the house," — is reduced to the
holding of a book and the handling of hard, resisting medi-
ums such as pencil or pen, slate or paper. What wonder
that his spontaneity ebbs lower and lower; that he becomes
duller and duller; makes slower and slower headway in his
intellectual work, so that the middle grades in a public
school system are invariably the dragging grades, where the
least interest abounds! That which was the vitalizing qual-
ity in his blood, which quickened the circulation and puri-
fied the waste particles, has been eliminated, — joy in self-
activity; no more clay to poke fingers into, no more pretty
things to make and paste; no more "hyacinths" — using the
language of Mohammed — wherewith to delight his eye and
feed his soul!
Jean Paul Richter gives us as his experience, "that activ-
ity alone can bring and hold serenity and happiness; hence
play is the first creative poetic utterance in man." Plato
claimed that the plays of children had the mightiest influ-
ence on the maintenance and non-maintenance of laws.
But it remained for Froebel to make the great connection, —
the connection between outward activity and inward unfold-
ment. It was Froebel who saw that play, to be nourishing
and educative, must also be orderly and regulated. In the
French Revolution, in the uprising of the Communes, in the
restless discontent of the people, in war and bloodshed, in
the love and tyrannical use of power, in the monopoly and
THE WHOLE CHILD. IO9
selfishness of the individual, he recognized the inverted,
wrongly directed play impulse. Froebel reasoned: The
child is a spiritual being; that "God created man in his own
image, therefore man should create and bring forth like
God." God — pure Spirit — is activity in perfect repose.
Childhood is a condition of unconscious, undirected activity
in restlessness. Man is in a condition of inverted — there-
fore perverted — activity; hence his rebellious discontent.
True education should mean leading man back to God,
to harmony and his highest self, through the right exercise
of his activities. Activity was to Froebel so much God
energy, so much God power, to be lovingly guarded and
gently encouraged. Now the creative activity and the play
impulse are one. He tells us that "Jesus, in his life and
teachings, constantly opposed the imitation of external per-
fection. Only spiritual striving, living perfection, deathless
aspiration, is to be held fast to as an ideal." External
activity is not to be sought for its own sake, but for the
mental activity that it promotes; but this is law, that the
younger or more rudimentary the being, the more it de-
pends on external activity for the awakening of its internal
thought power.
Pestalozzi had previously introduced objective methods
in education; but .there is a vast difference between his ap-
preciation of the child and Froebel's. Pestalozzi would
have the child acquire his knowledge through observation
and imitation of the works of others; but Froebel stands
squarely on the axiom — Learn to do, by doing; Learn to
love by loving; Learn to live, by living, — which means,
Let child and teacher get their experience first hand; let
them enter into the process; be one with it; be it. Let the
whole child engage in this exercise; appeal to him through
as many materials and in as many ways as are suitable to
his age and conditions. Such an all-sided activity must
bring as its reward joy and understanding; the pain will be
extracted from labor, and the agony from the human ex-
perience.
It is through his activity that the child comes to know
Vol. 6-8
no THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the world he lives in. Knowledge of the world he lives in
is a necessary step to knowledge of himself, or to self-rec-
ognition. But the world he lives in is a world of things,
and the child recognizes them only through such qualities
as color, weight, size, form, observation; and handling of
these things is only a partial acquaintance. Familiarity,
friendship, and sympathy, or the development of the al-
truistic side, arises from living the life of the thing with it,
so far as it can be lived; that is, acquainting himself with
the process of its construction, knowing how it is made.
Hence arises the necessity for making, or reproduction, by
the child. So long as he simply looks on and handles
things, the products of other people's genius and work, so
long he is unconscious of himself, of his own power to do
or make that special thing; he is left in a state of feeling
that the one who made the things is more gifted than him-
self. Now the great value of bringing the child to con-
sciousness of himself, of his power to remake and to trans-
form, is that he may later see himself as a spiritual being;
able to master circumstances and conquer destiny; to rise
superior to fate. As Mr. Hailman says in his Notes on
"The Education of Man," "With proper guidance this kind
of manual training becomes the most positive agency in se-
curing for the pupil that habit of success, that calm sense
of power, that firm conviction of mastership, which is so
essential to fullness of life, and almost indispensable to the
success of the school." Mr. Hailman continues: "The ma-
terial used for the manual training of children should adapt
itself to the capacities and needs of the little workers, so
that it may yield readily to their limited skill, adapt itself
without worry to their aims, and thus secure for manual ex-
pression an automatism similar to that of speech."
This is where the primary school differs radically from
the kindergarten. It concerns itself chiefly with the ac-
quirement of the tools of intercourse, — how to read and
write, the calling and making of abstract characters, — rather
than mental training or unfoldment of soul.
In the earliest attempts to master reading and writing
THE SUMMER CHILD QUESTIONS. Ill
no new ideas are given to refresh the child. He must wait
until he has first familiarized himself with the barren forms
of printed words; he is obliged to be patient till the new
vocabulary is acquired, before he can stretch his imagination
or enter a fresh field of discovery. It is at this time, when
he is contending for the mastery of abstract signs and sym-
bols in order to enter the world of his parents and teachers,
that plastic material like clay and paper supplies a perma-
nent need for self-expansion, for soul-unfoldment.
• Is it not time that an intelligent society should cease to
accept of education as a fixed quantity, a something which
can be measured out to its children from between the cov-
ers of books, and that it should begin to adapt the forms of
its instruction to the nature of the child? To do this, par-
ents, teachers, all who are interested, must go back to a
basis of axiomatic principles, to a common-sense philoso-
phy that recognizes man as mind, as intelligence, and not
an imbecile mass of inert matter. When humanity comes
to regard itself as x in an infinite equation, the dead form-
alism of the primary and grammar schools must yield to a
more elastic and spontaneous way of instruction. It re-
mains for society to assert its right to live a life independ-
ent of traditions and opinions.
Josephine Carson Locke.
THE SUMMER-CHILD QUESTIONS.
O wild bird, where are you flying?
The winds are a-blowing
The same way you're going.
And thither the clouds are hying.
The cold has come in the North.
We haste
From its blast
To the South.
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
O leaves, your blossoms are dropping;
They're falling so quickly,
The ground is spread thickly;
And some of your branches are snapping
The wind and cold doth blow.
We fall
At the call
Of the snow.
O brooklet, why were you waiting
This morning, 'neath the rushes
And 'mong the willow bushes.
Your journey southward belating?
The ice had barred my way.
Its chain
I am fain
To obey.
O bright sun, why are you sinking
At evening more lowly.
And come back so slowly
That stars in the morning are blinking?
I follow the night-land's track.
To bring
A sweet spring
I'll come back.
O mother, what are they saying
Of blowing and snowing?
And why are they going.
And leave me alone at my playing?
'Tis but the night of the year.
My mild
Summer child.
Dry your tear.
Andrea Hofer.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
It is the policy of the Kindergarten Magazine to bring
less discussion of materials, or even methods, and to en-
courage on the part of all teachers a closer observation of
the child itself. We welcome all experimental discussions
to these columns, and would encourage the exchange of
personal experiences such as grow out of the varying con-
ditions of daily work, rather than the formulated doctrines
of the most approved leaders. This is the day of growth
and of groiuing, and premature or final conclusions do not
find place therein. Every teacher, every kindergartner,
every parent has a right to test the newer method born of
every yesterday's experience and of every today's necessity.
This alone constitutes an educational reformer.
Among our permanent contributors for the coming vol-
ume, which numbers VI, we take pleasure in announcing
that Miss Mary Proctor, daughter of the late astronomer
Richard A. Proctor, will provide a series of illustrated
articles on "Astronomy for Children," of which the second
number appears this month. She will bring, in succession, »
studies of the moon, the stars, the giant planets, the inner
planets, nebula, and the constellations. Miss Proctor will
fill a series of lecture engagements in Brooklyn, New York
Philadelphia, and Chicago during the fall and winter. Her
heart is in this work of acquainting the child with the heav-
ens, and therefore her suggestions are of vital value to edu-
cators.
Among other contributors whose names and work will
command the interest of our readers are Miss Anna Bron-
son King, niece of that great lover of children, A. Bron-
son Alcott, who will bring us Studies of the Child in Art;
Miss Josephine Carson Locke, who is best known by her
practical demonstrations in educational art, and who will
discuss the subject in her inimitable way, carrying force and
inspiration to every reader. The opening number of Miss
114 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Locke's articles appears in this issue of the magazine, en-
titled, "The Whole Child." As supervisor of drawing and
form study in the Chicago public schools, as well as by her
personal genius, Miss Locke was one of the most conspicu-
ous figures of the recent educational congresses.
Mr. Gustav Larsson, at present director of the sloyd
normal classes in Boston, will discuss in clear and compre-
hensive style the subject of the truth in hand work. Miss
Frances Newton, for several years conspicuous as special
director of the kindergarten department of Chautauqua
summer schools, will contribute a regular series of talks for
that most important department, for the parents and home.
Among others who will share with us of their store the
coming year, are the following: Miss Sarah Griswold of the
Cook County Normal, on the practical primary school;
Miss Elizabeth Harrison, of the Chicago Kindergarten Col-
lege; Miss E. A. Lord, of Brooklyn, on the much-mentioned
but slightly understood subject of Tonic Sol-fa; Miss Lucy
Wheelock, than whom Boston holds no greater favorite
among kindergartners; Mrs. Ada M. Hughes, of Toronto;
and Mrs. Mary Dana Hicks, of Boston.
The opening article of this number, entitled, "Directing
the Self-activity of the Child," by Professor Hannah Carter
of the Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, is a sound and well-
balanced criticism of the many methods in vogue which
pass for new education. Mrs. Carter's argument leads back
again and again to that grim fact which the educational
congress so repeatedly unveiled, — that the pedagogical
crimes committed in the name of school-teaching are due
not to the children, nor the methods, nor the tendencies of
the day, but invariably to the ig/wrancc of those professing
the profession of education. The paper is well worth close
attention. It hints broadly how to find the golden mean
between the two extremes of the so-called old and new
education.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's " MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. II.
If you have followed out the instructions for preparatory
study of the book, as outlined in the previous paper, you
are now ready with questions. If you have merely skimmed
through its pages, your comments may verge on criticism
and objection. One says, "How poor the rhymes are! they
are mere doggerel, and far from poetry; they are by no
means lucid, and the mottoes are well-nigh mystic in their
obscurity." Another speaks from his eye, and declares the
illustrations crude and inartistic; even discovers grotesques
of anatomy and pose which compel merriment. A third
smiles that this book should be held in such earnest esteem
by men and women of intellect: there is far too much senti-
ment and too little sound sense expressed concerning it.
Others, who have opened the pages with an earnest effort
to read their secret, will be charmed by its quaint and pic-
turesque tone. Those who have mused over the book have
found much more of its inner meaning than those who have
viewed it from the intellectual or literary standpoint.
Let us remember that this book was compiled from
among the nurseries of the people, — nurseries presided
over by simple-hearted but unthinking mothers; we will
not say ignorant women, so much as unthinking. The Ger-
man peasant women are often full of deepest feeling, — ap-
proaching the poetic, always tinged with the symbolic.
Like veritable children, they needed to be led, — led into
formulating their often over-full but unapprehended feel-
ings. Froebel took them on their own plane, and accumu-
lated these nursery rhymes, under the direction of his wife;
and from these texts from real life, he preached the doc-
trine which he longed to unfold to mothers. Put yourself
into their place; for like them, you have been largely un-
thinking about these things which concern the spontaneous
1 1.6 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
right culture of little children. A contemporary of Froebel
has said: "His poetry may in places be improved. But
who does this, must be equally as great a teacher as a
poet."
Taking the familiar home songs, which were enveloped
in that wonder-cloak of family associations, Froebel came
home to the mothers' sympathies; through their own babes
in arms, he opened the doors. Did he begin to show them
pictures of their ignorances, prejudices, or grievous mis-
takes? Did he urge them to awaken from their dense
apathy or indifference to the most vital work in the world,
— their rearing of children? Did he draw them sketches
of the morbid, uncleanly, irritable, willful, unloving, or un-
childlike little ones coming up about them on all sides,
with eyes, ears, and souls closed even to the stars above
them?
No, he went to them as to a little child, showing a pic-
ture book. The illustrations of "Die Mutter und Kose-
Lieder" are crude. They are often poor in perspective,
and worse in drawing; but they do tell stories. Some of
them reveal the play within the play, and have been found
by great artists — who always look behind the external de-
ficiency, into the "feeling" of a picture — to possess that
one most essential of all qualities, — a keen, sincere, undying
purpose. The illustrations were made under the immediate
supervision of Froebel himself, and executed, after many
discouragements as to financial and artistic ability, by the
young boy Friedrich linger, who was filled with the spirit
of the thought, but, forsooth, was only a sign painter by
trade. Herr Fr. Seidel, the first publisher of this book,
says of the illustrations: "They are noble, pure, naive
throughout, free from every effort for the sake of effect."
There is no trace of insincerity or caricature. Their influ-
ence is all that should be, as opposed to the comic illustra-
tions, or fantastic quality of the modern picture card or
scrapbook.
How often it has been asked and as often attempted by
new students of this book: Why not have a new set of illus-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. II/
trations, in which the figures and surroundings shall be
taken from modern life? As well reproduce the Orbis
Pictus of the good John Comenius with drawings from the
pen of a Parisian art student who has never seen the lair of
a serpent or the forest haunts of wild beasts! The modern
child you have with you in abundance. Study it; picture
it; familiarize yourself with every detail of its garments,
features, and temperament, and remember that a baby is a
baby still, to the little children who look at 3^our picture
book, whether it be swaddled in Lapland furs or clothed
in nature's own sun-browned skin of tan. A picture as a
story, must not exhaust its possibilities. In fact, it must
suggest; it must impel imagination; it should set the whole
child's fancy to work, since this can make such pictures as
no photographic camera has yet succeeded in catching.
This brings us to the purpose of the "Mutter und Kose-
Lieder," the songs and illustrations of which, together, form
a symbolic picture of universal child life. There are touches
of local coloring, but these are lost in the essential thought
of the author: viz., to illustrate typical experiences common
to all normal growing children. These experiences are al-
ways considered relative to the typical home and the model
mother, whose influence creates and keeps the atmosphere
of the child's environment. Not tables and chairs, nor
even luxuries and good food, make up the home. The
quality of mother-thought and feeling is everything. In-
stead of showing these mothers — whose sins of omission
far outnumber those of commission — the negative picture,
our author goes direct to the mark and presents the remedy,
made up from their own possible resources.
The mother is now possessed of a concrete means by
which she and her child together may work out into higher
consciousness and mutual understanding. Does the kinder-
gartner now see that it is not so much the method as the
mood which, makes her work of avail to the child? not so
much what she docs for hhn, as with him? The child must
be ever considered relative to her ov/n life, — the mother and
the child, not the mother for her child.
Il8 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Let US now follow out our formulated plan of studying
the individual songs, as led up to last month.
1. In studying each particular song, follow the same
method as with the book: first get a clear idea of its germi-
nal thought. This thought is always some i?istinctwe 7nani-
festation of the child, — e. g., the instinct of action, movement,
as in the " Play with the Limbs," or the imitation of exter-
nal activities, as in the "Weather Vane," or the instinctive
right of recognition, as in the "Hiding Child."
2. Study carefully the pictures illustrating the songs,
and seek to find the connection between every detail and
the central thought illustrated. \\\ the picture of " Mowing
Grass," for instance, what hint of the general thought is
conveyed by the two children sitting under opposite trees
and making dandelion chains? Why are the chariots of
the gods introduced into the picture illustrating the "Wheel-
wright"? What is the significance of the flock of sheep in
the picture showing the "Wolf and Boar"?
3. From the song and picture advance to the motto and
commentary. Rewrite the motto in prose, and reproduce
the commentary in your own words.
4. By all means write out the questions that arise in
your own mind, and submit them to the class at its regular
meeting. If each member of the class does this, much light
will be thrown upon the play under study.
5. The songs and mottoes will soon be found to be re-
markably suggestive. Be on your guard not to discuss un-
important points to the exclusion of the essentials.
6. If advisable have some one keep a record of the best
points brought out in the class, particularly of the practical
illustrations gleaned from the actual experience of the
members.
7. At the close of the study of any one song, review it
broadly and generalize the seed-thought gleaned.
8. Each song should be studied, — first, from the stand-
point of the mother and her needs, the mother and her
duties to the child; second, from the spontaneous growth
of the child into normal consciousness.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. I IQ
9. As a final delight, present the picture to the children
at home and see what they find in it. Do not inform them
of what you have extracted, but let them know that you
warmly and sincerely feel interest, and they will reciprocate
by finding many things and asking many questions.
In our next paper we will read out the meaning of that
group of first songs, — the mother and child. — Ainalie Hofer.
A TYPICAL PROGRAM SKETCHED.
''No Man Livetli to Himself Alone." — This thought, or text,
lies within the truth that all forms of life have a vital
relationship, which unifies and binds all things into one
connected and harmonious whole. The child might ex-
press the same thought by such a question: "Is there any-
thing there is only one of?" and again: "Is this 07ie by
itself, and not belonging. to anything else?" This question
in turn will lead out into the still higher thought of the
purpose and use of every related thing. Beginning in the
nature thought, we trace out how here nothing lives to itself
alone, and plan this work to cover the months of Septem-
ber, October, and November, — twelve weeks in all.
Our nature study for Septem.ber, by way of portal to the
larger thought, is the life of the rocks, — how they grow,
their place in nature, their use to man, the many stones to-
gether, and how they give us paved streets, sidewalks,
walls, bridges, gateways, churches, and houses. Men in
early times used stone so much that the time in which they
lived was called the Stone Age. By means of specimens
such as slate and marble, we grow acquainted with this
wonderful rock family, and note the dissimilarity of its many
members.
In October we follow out the same general plan, study-
ing the trees and their place and purpose in nature, — the
fruit-bearing trees and plants. » In November the seeds lead
us to the subject of grain, in which we lay special emphasis
on the corn, — the one ear made up of many kernels; and
the harvest study brings us at last to Thanksgiving.
What do we read in all this? The rocks, trees, plants.
120 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
seeds, and cereals give us their fruit (their method of ren-
dering service), and thus they do not live for themselves
alone. This thought is by no means formulated for the
children, but lived out by them, leaving their own experi-
ences to prompt the expression in words.
During this fall work we seek to emphasize the fact that
there is no such thing as inanimate nature, as materialists
would have it, but that nature is one ; the various forms of
nature live for the common benefit of all.
The Thanksgiving thought transfers to and deepens our
interest in Jiuman life. We come then to the family and
community, with a certain element of historic association;
but the main reason for this is that we wish naturally to
approach man, have come through nature first. This shapes
our work for the next three months.
December is speiit with the family, — after some such
outline as the following: How does the father work for the
family? how the children? the domestic help? The mother
is the heart of the family life, and from this picture of
mother love we merge into the Christ thought, — the family
of the Christ child.
January brings us to the consideration of the commu-
nity, the neighborhood, — made up of many families, each of
which makes glad the new year; the pleasures of the neigh-
borhood, indoors and out; snow and ice, — many flakes and
crystals again serving together give us sleighing and skat-
ing; snow and ice, — their use in nature, and their crystal
formations.
The industries of the community, merging into state or
national life, bring us, in February, to the related life of
the individual, to the town, as well as the relation of town
and city to the state. George Washington is our type.
What did the American people of those days do for us?
Thanksgiving and Washington's Birthday are contrasted,
and from them we culminate again our thought of each for
all.
From community of interests where no one works for
himself alone, we have led to the higher thought of sacri-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 121
fice for a nation's good. The best life is that which is will-
ing to sacrifice self for the good of others. Washington
did this through defensive war. There are other ways. We
take up the story of the child who saved Holland from in-
undation by stopping a leak in the dike with his hand,
remaining thus all night; then other stories illustrating
greater sacrifices. Even animals will unselfishly sacrifice
themselves, and we tell stories of such instances.
We approach the Easter thought upon this basis. Christ
gave up earthly power and glory, choosing to be poor and
lowly, in order, by so doing, to get nearer to humanity.
The thought of sacrifice must never be separated from that
of greater love, emphasizing throughout the glory and glad-
ness of doing for others. Therefore the month of March is
spent in working out the stories of sacrifice. The child
who saved Holland; characteristics of Holland: low, flat
countr}^ dikes, the great windmills; other true heroes and
heroines: Florence Nightingale, Admiral Taylor of the Vic-
toria.
April brings us nearer the Easter story: The life of
Jesus on earth one of self-abnegation; his ascension to
glory; the glory of awakening nature; the awakening of the
flowers,- -taking the snowdrop, violet, and crocus for special
color study. Systematic color work is carried all through
the year, but is not confined to the schools of geometric
work. The six standards have been used as decorations
upon certain wall spaces, and the plays with the First Gift
as well as the prism have broadened the general color sense
of the children.
During the month of May we formulate the color work,
bringing out its freest and most artistic side. As in the
race, color, music, sculpture, etc., were the overflow of a
certain awakened spiritual condition, so b}^ the end of our
kindergarten season the children are ready to formulate
and express themselves in the more artistic forms. We
study the violet, beginning with the violet end of the spec-
trum. Green, blue, and violet are too cold coming together
this time of the year, therefore let us rather begin with vio-
122 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
let and red, where they merge one into the other. The
living green of nature as seen in all plant life is also em
phasized, and during June we follow out conventional de-
signs with borders made up of number groupings based
upon green leaf and plant forms.
The Easter time corresponding to the awakening of na-
ture, we perceive the glory of form and color in the flora.
We return again to nature, as in the beginning of our kin-
dergarten year, but from a different standpoint. The older
children should now appreciate the abstract qualities of
color, form, and number, and this through the most delight-
ful of ways, — through the study of the beautiful in plant
life. Here, indeed, nature emphasizes in every grouping of
tiny leaves that nothing lives to itself alone. We conven-
tionalize these designs in paper folding, cutting, and draw-
ing, but we never dissect our natural patterns. We do not
analyze too much, for our purpose is not so much scientific
as artistic. We do not confine ourselves to the use of
rosette forms cut from one piece of paper, or forming the
design in one piece, but freely combine separate elements,
the children making their own forms, applying the thought
of how many different elements or parts may go to make
up a beautiful whole.
In the daily gift work we arrange for frequent group
work, at least once a week. In other work we seek to con-
nect not only the thought, but to work it out in a most con-
nected manner. Again all the children together work upon
one task, — for example, the defining of a large body of
water, by outlining with lentils all around the table. In all
this detail, which is daily adjusted to our children and
workers, — first according to individual needs and growth,
second, to the establishing of each one as a part of the
whole, — we must not lose our logical order of the right per-
ceptions which grow out of the use of the gifts in their
proper sequence of development. The vital principle, then,
of our current year's work shall be "each for all," because
each is necessary to the whole; for children, in their growth
into conscious egos, have a tendency to absorb too much
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 1 23
for the individual. True growth is the establishing of rela-
tive values, — man not unto himself alone, but as one of a
family, a community, a universal fraternity. — Laura P.
Charles, Lexington, Ky.
SOME POINTS ON THE DAILY PROGRAM.
As in telling a story, so in making a program, determine
upon a point, — then make it.
Select a point worth making, and one that embodies
essentials rather than trivialities.
The general thought of the program is all-important,
providing it fit your children. Do not lose it in favor of
detail, however pretty.
Sequences and the logic of your materials must always
be made secondary to the child.
It is as necessary to have a sound logical plan to your
work as is a vertebral column to anatomy; but be sure to
cover the bones with healthy, beautiful flesh.
Contrary to traditions, the kindergarten system has
nothing to do with object lessons merely as a study of
things. The things must stand for thoughts. Make your
program topic a principle rather than an object.
See to it that such expressions as "harmonious develop-
ment" be less on your lips and more in your heart. Let it
cease to be a phrase, and make it a fact.
Fill yourself with the spirit of your program, as well as
the letter. A musician who sacrifices all else to his interest
in music, inspires his hearers. The teacher should appeal
to his audience because of the same reason.
It is better to have the work hour end before you are
ready, and to the regret of the children, than to have the
work all in order and hands folded waiting for the signals.
The same is true of vacation time. Your year's work is
an unquestioned success if you and the children regret va-
cation.
Never keep one eye on the clock to hurry the hands
124 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
around, if you are eager to close the work. Those hands,
like your own, will only half do their duty.
Program work should be the outgrowth of your own
deep interest in your children. Let it be the overflow from
your superabundance, rather than a pile of accumulated in-
formation.
Do not reserve your best qualities as too good for the
daily service. The general rides his finest steed into the
thick of the battle.
Study yourself as well as your children, and put to their
service that which you best know and cherish.
The kindergarten should be an actual home, with all its
home duties. In proportion as this is made a fact, will it
be unnecessary to play at housekeeping or arrange your
program to encourage domestic interest.
If you have a new hobby, — of color, form, or any other
special feature, — do not be afraid to take it into your kin-
dergarten and sincerely work it out with the children.
Study the children at the close of each day. Do not
waste your time merely repeating their "cute" or abnormal
sayings and doings. Trace their growth toward conscious-
ness, and you will have an addition to your store of psy-
chology.
Whenever you are particularly depressed, get your as-
sistants and the parents together, to talk over the benefits
of the kindergarten to the neighborhood and children.
Don't let the word or thought of teach creep into your
program. The kindergarten is not a sub-primary; it is a
sweet, serene home for yourself and little children.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER.
To the thoughtful kindergartner, the opening of school
in September brings with it a feeling of serious responsibil-
ity. We are overwhelmed by the "alchemy of influence."
One who has made this subject a study says: " No man can
meet another on the street without making some mark upon
him. We say we exchange words when we meet; what we
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 1 25
exchange is souls. It is through this law of influence that
we become like those whom we admire." If this be true
with persons in mature life, how much greater the influence
of the kindergartner, who must necessarily stamp her very
life and soul upon the receptive little ones, day after day.
week after week, and month after month, as they look con-
fidingly to her, believing all things. With what care should
she live out her very best self!
Of the many delicate subjects to be considered by the
true kindergartner, that of leading the children up to and
preparing them for the first prayer in the kindergarten, and
later, the introduction of succeeding exercises of devotion,
claim a prominent place. We would suggest the following,
which may be helpful to some one. On entering the kin-
dergarten, the children are led to observe the clean floor,
fresh curtains, and other indications of care for their happi-
ness. They are prompted to question to whom they are
indebted for these kindnesses. The persons who have done
these favors are sent for, and some expression of gratitude
is called forth from the children. A heartfelt "Thank
you!" is soon spontaneously given, as, day after day, the
little ones recognize that to some one's care and thought
they are indebted for the enjoyment of every comfort and
pleasure. Especial pains is taken every day, to trace favors
to their sources, which frequently reveals one of the chil-
dren as the doer.
After a week has passed, during which time no hymn
has been sung or prayer repeated at the morning circle, a
slight surprise is expressed by the kindergartner, that
though the children have daily thanked the janitor for nu-
merous favors received, and have found occasion to thank
their teachers for kindnesses every day, there is something
which they have welcomed and sung to every morning, but
for which they have never yet said "Thank you." Who
sends us the sunshine that
Comes into our circle, and joins us in our play ?
Who makes the flowers that grow for us to enjoy?
Vol. 6-9
126 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Some child is sure to give a response, and all repeat, with
bowed heads, "We thank Thee for the sunshine and for the
pretty flowers," which, though a short prayer, is understood
diwd felt by them.
The following morning the first installment of a con-
tinued story is told the children, of a little homeless boy
named Jack, who has found a protector and home, and who
for the first time enjoys the luxury of a clean bed and good
food. With hearts full of sympathy for this little waif, the
children listen to a hymn sung, which was taught to Jack as
a "Thank you" to his Father in heaven, for the night's rest
and new home. The little hymn, "Father, we thank Thee
for the night," thus introduced, will have a meaning to every
child. But one verse of this hymn is sung, the second verse
not being given until the children are made ready to re-
ceive it.
It seems to me that all hymns and prayers should be
developed and introduced in such a manner as will call
forth responsive sympathy on the part of the children, and
neither hymn nor prayer should be used so continuously as
to become meaningless to the little ones. — Antoinette Clwatc.
ENGLISH LULLABY.
Plump little baby clouds,
Dimpled and soft,
• Rock in their air cradles,
Swinging aloft.
Snowy cloud mothers.
With broad bosoms white.
Watch o'er the baby clouds
Slumbering light.
Tired wee baby clouds.
Dreaming of fears.
Rock in their air cradles,
Dropping soft tears.
Great brooding mother clouds.
Watching o'er all.
Let their warm mother tears
Tenderly fall. — Selected.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
127
Fid
THE GIANT SUN.
II.
(Written for the Kindergarten Magazi
COPYRIGHTED.
Once upon a time there was a
great giant who lived up in the sky,
and he was called Giant Sun, and he
looked like this. His house was
known as the Solar System, and he
had a large family of children called
Planets, and little baby planetoids,
or asteroids. First of all there was
his oldest son, the giant planet Jupi-
ter, the largest of all the planets. ^ '^
Then came his big brother Saturn, p.
who was very proud of some rings J^
he wore. .See how he smiles! Uranus
and Neptune were great chums, who
went on their way without noticing ''°
the rest of the family. Mercury and
Mars were always fighting and fuss-
ing, and gave a great deal of trouble Fio.l.
to Giant Sun. Venus and Earth
were the twins, being just about the
same size, and were as good and
quiet as Giant Sun could wish them
to be. It is very true that Jupiter
had a way of tugging at the Earth
and trying to get her away from
Venus, whilst Venus would hold on to
the Earth with all her little strength.
Mars and Saturn often tried to inter-
fere in these childish squabbles, but
only made matters still worse. How-
ever, this did not seem to worry the
Earth very much; but it did worry
the Sun. He was very much dis-
gusted with his quarrelsome set of
children, and he made up his mind
to put an end to all their foolishness.
s^ "k
Fig. 4
F>oS
Fi&.i.
A
128
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
One day a great fight took place among the planets and
the asteroids, or planetoids, or "baby planets," as Jupiter
sometimes called them. The three comets, who are the
servants of the Sun, and belong to his house the Solar Sys-
tem, tried to interfere and make peace in the family. See
the sad results. The names of these comets, as you will see
by the labels on their collars, were Encke, Biela, and
Halley; and right fine comets they were, too; but, alas! in
this terrible fight Comet Biela lost his head and split in
twain. Can you imagine his distress? But the Sun was
still more distressed when he saw his own dear little Biela
flying along in two pieces; so he sent his rays .out as far as
they would reach, and surrounded his troublesome little
family and frowned at them till he looked like this, whilst
each separate hair on his head stood on end, and he said:
" Planets, planetoids, and comets, lend me your ears.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
129
[As the planets, etc., had no ears, they could not make the
desired loan — but no matter.] From this day you shall all
go on a path, or orbit, which I shall mark out for you'on
the sky. I shall keep naughty, frisky little Mercury close
beside me, and next to him will toddle my dear little Venus.
I shall put the Earth near to her, as it would never do to
separate the twins. .As the Earth will not get quite enough
light to find her way, being further away from me than
^OJ^EPTUNE
Mercury and Venus, I shall give her a lamp called the
Moon. Next to the Earth I shall place Mars, and give him
two lamps. • [See Mars and his two lamps, or moons.] On
the other side of Mars is Jupiter, with five moons, and Sat-
urn, with eight moons. Far away from Saturn will be
Uranus, with four moons, and Neptune, with one moon.
130
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
"Neptune is to have charge of the Solar System, and go
round on the outside with his lamp, to see that none of the
planets or asteroids escape. The asteroids are to travel on
a path between Mars and Jupiter, and as there are nearly
three hundred of them, they had better march carefully, or
they will be running into Mars or Jupiter some day; then
there will be war in the sky. I have made Encke the serv-
ant of Jupiter, to carry messages from him to me; Comet
Biela is the messenger boy for Saturn, whilst Halley goes
on long trips out into space, returning again with messages
from far-distant stars."
.»•**"
Fib. 17.
When the Sun said this must be so, the planets and
planetoids and comets knew that he meant what he said.
So smiling as if they liked it very much indeed, they ar-
ranged themselves on their paths, or orbits, and have never
moved off them since. See them as they walk round hand
in hand at the start; but they will soon have to let go
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. I3I
hands. Do you see why? See what a little distance Mer-
cury has to go, and then notice what a long trip Neptune
has to take. Would you like to know how long it takes the
planets to get round the Sun? Well, I shall tell you, as I
am sure you would like to know. Mercury takes 88 days,
Venus 225 days, our Earth 365 days, and Mars 687 days;
Jupiter takes 12 years, Saturn 29 'years, Uranus 84 years, and
Neptune 165 years. Just think! if you were to live a hun-
dred years, you would have to live sixty-five more, if you
intended waiting for Neptune to complete one trip. In
other words, if you lived on Neptune you would not be
even one year old, for a year on Neptune is 165 times as
long as a year on our Earth, whilst a year on our Earth is
equal to a little more than four years on Mars; so that if
you were four years old on our Earth, you would be a
grown-up person of sixteen on Mars. The comets also take
some time to make their trips. Encke takes a little more
than three years, Biela takes about seven years, and Halley
takes seventy-five long years before it reaches the Sun
"again.
After the Sun had arranged his family on their paths
and told them the way they must go, there was peace and
quiet in the family, and although the comets do sometimes
seem as if they were going to fly against the planets, yet
they generally manage to escape before they get too near.
— Mary Proctor, St. Joseph, Mo.
[These outline drawings are suggestions for simple but graphic
blackboard work to accompany the story.]
THE W^ORCESTER SCHOOL EXPERIMENT.
We are making experiments in all directions. For eight
years one has been going on in the State Normal School at
Worcester, Mass., and the recently published results of it
demand attention and excite curiosity. This is a study of
children — a psychological study, instead of the physiolog-
ical one formerly conducted in schools with the birch and
the ruler. Considering the length of time we have had
132 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
children with us, it is astonishing how little we know about
them. This is partly because we have never applied the
inductive method to them, the habit of scientific observa-
tion being recent in all branches of knowledge. There has
been a theory that all children are naturally liars, and
another theory that all are naturally truth tellers, neither of
which is confirmed by observation. We have got so far in
our observations already as to find that children cannot be
treated in a lump, any more than criminals can be, and that,
especially for pedagogic purpose, they must be studied in-
dividually. In short, the teacher must understand the ma-
terial he is to operate on; and this sort of understanding is a
recent idea. Whether we shall ever have a trustworthy and
working psychology of childhood may be doubted, even
after the most extensive records of observations; but a wide
induction will certainly improve our methods of teaching.
There is no doubt that the normal pupils at Worcester are
much better fitted for their work with children by reason of
their systematic study of them. The system at Worcester
is simply that of observation and faithful records. There
are no lines of special inquiry laid down, nor any theories
to be supported or disproved by facts. The object is to
observe the real nature of child activity; and this can only
be successful when the child is freely acting out his nature,
and is unconscious that he is observed. He is very quick
to see when he is being "drawn out," and to attempt to fit
his replies to the inquiries; and thus the inquiry arrests the
exhibition of the phenomena we are in search of. The only
testimony that is of value is of the doings of the child when
he does not know he is observed, and his sayings when they
are spontaneous and unprompted.
The great interest of this study as a means of training
teachers in the habits of exact observation, which will best
fit them for dealing with the minds of children, aside from
its character as a contribution to a science of psychology,
warrants its widest publicity. Mr. E. Harlow Russel, prin-
cipal of the Worcester school, in his exposition of the
method, says that the records already number over 19,000,
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 1 33
and they are increasing at the rate of 3,000 a year; Mr. H.
W. Brown, teacher, publishes a selection, classified, of 375
records, from 500 which he has read. The observations
were mostly made by young women from seventeen to
twenty-one years of age, and they are of children from the
age of one year and two months to the age of twelve years.
These records are as amusing as they are curious, and taken
all together, they reveal the thoughts and limitations of
childhood in an almost startling way. They are, however,
only observations in a small field, and of children under
certain local influences, and offer no safe guide for wide
generalization. Observation of children of other nations
and of children differently reared would give, no doubt,
different records. Especially is this to be said of the
thoughts and reasonings about God, Christ, and heaven.
These are mainly reflex indications of adult clouded and
illogical religious ideas. With these ideas the merciless
logic of children often plays havoc. It is difficult to judge
also how far their misconceptions are their own. The
thought occurs in reading these records, that adults may
see themselves more clearly in the children than in any
other mirror. For example, clergymen addicted to making
prayers full of information might reflect on the reason of
the refusal of the boy to say his prayers at night: "Why,
they're old. God has heard them so many times that they
are old to him too. Why, he knows them as well as I do
myself." Perhaps there is a suggestion for artists, in regard
to illustration, in the remembered preference of a little girl:
"As a rule, I preferred story books which were not illus-
trated. This was because the illustrations were not so beau-
tiful as the pictures which came into my mind while listen-
ing to or reading a story. I used to turn the pages over
quickly, or, if there was print above and below the picture,
I used to hold my hand Over the picture, so that it could
not blot out the one in my mind." Lessing agreed with
this little girl about the futility of this attempt of one art to
copy another. — Harper's Magazijie.
134 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
BIBLE TEXTS AND SEQUENCES IN THE KINDERGARTEN.
The July number of the Cliicago Free Khidergcwten Quar-
terly was an exceptionally valuable issue. The commence-
ment papers took the usual place of programs. Among
other papers, one by Miss Mary May has interested us
greatly. It is a spirited discussion on the use of Bible texts
in the daily kindergarten work, with special reference to
the Free Association. We recommend this article to all
kindergartners who are ignorant of the methods of this
work, or who ma}' hold mistaken impressions of the same.
Miss May touches also upon the misapprehended use of
sequences and the literalism in the kindergarten, which is
ever to be deplored. She says in part:
"The children do not have texts given them that they do
not understand, nor does intellectual cramming take the
place of spiritual development. The subject is ahvays ap-
proached from the broad standpoint of the material, so that
the child can go easily from the thing he knows to that
which he does not know. Further, the transition can be
made so slowly and gently, that he never is conscious of the
coupling that hitches his 'wagon to a star.'
"In our kindergarten and class work we lay great stress
on the creative development. Therefore in the gift and oc-
cupation work we have abandoned the lecture system, think-
ing that it is better for each teacher to have a little theory
of her own, as a germ for future growth, than to have it
poured in from the outside, undigested and chaotic as to
place and subject. For the same reason we do not use the
gift sequences as laid down in the guide books (as they are
purely arbitrary), and we adapt the occupations directly to
the best line of work.
"The students and children are encouraged to make
their own sequences; for results attained by one's own ef-
forts are of vastly more educational value, even if crude,
than those worked out by some more experienced mind.
Then, too, these cut-and-dried sequences do not readily
adapt themselves to our line of work, where everything must
'lend a hand' in the development of some thought. Time
is too precious to allow the wasting of a moment, nor do
we despise even the smallest aid in elucidating so great a
thing as some spiritual thought, and in helping to develop
naturally so sacred a thing as a human soul.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. I 35
"While we do not use the accepted gift and occupation
sequences, do not think that the idea embodied in such work
is lost sight of. Our work for a year is an orderly sequence
of subject. We use sequences of song, game, and stor}-.
Our children can take and execute directions in many ways,
besides the placing of blocks or the folding of papers; and
what is more to the point, they can and do express their
own thought in sequences.
"What is the kindergarten for? Is it to teach a child a
certain amount of number, form, and color work? The
kindergarten is a failure in which the thought of character
building is lost sight of. An harmonious character devel-
ops naturally along the three lines of body, mind, and spirit.
No human educator has given us such plain guideposts along
the highway of life as Froebel; but that kindergartner is
not worthy her leader, who could not carry on her work
with strict adherence to his laws, even if deprived the use
of the conventional materials. Too slavish a following of
the letter always deadens. It is the spirit that quickens
and eives life."
WHAT HAS THE WORLD's FAIR DONE FOR OUR MUSIC?
The World's Fair has brought us in touch with the
thinking of all minds upon all subjects. What has it
brought to us in thoughts upon art? We have looked upon
beautiful forms, we have been uplifted by great architecture,
satisfied with color, and filled with harmonies of sound.
What does it all mean to us, and how much will it color our
lives and work? Hoiv mitcli will never be known, can never
be estimated. We have assimilated the beauty of the Fair
as our natural food, and have grown rich and strong in its
nurture. Never can its influence be erased from our minds;
ever must its glorious record be inscribed in our lives.
What practical hints and suggestions for truer work along
the lines o'f art have we received by comparison?
For music, we have heard Mr. Tomlins' children sing,
and have seen and felt the great power of pure song living
and throbbing through the hearts and voices of little chil-
dren. We are glad in our hearts to know that these children
are all their lives long to be the better for in their child-
136 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
hood to have breathed and lived for a little while at least in
the sunshine of pure art. Not only their hearts but their
bodies must be different. Their whole attitude toward life
seems changed, and new impulses toward the good, the true,
and the beautiful must be the result. Are we not the better
for having seen living harmony, and carry deeper the pur-
pose in our hearts to make the music of the coming year
mean more to the little ones in our charge?
We have been to the music congresses, and while per-
haps there was less of inspiration here than we expected, in
what we heard and saw there was much to think about.
There was less of the doing here, and much more thinking
of the hows and whys.
As kindergartners we are in the doing stage, and so when
children illustrated, quite wonderfully, intellectual musical
feats, but sang with poor voice quality, the art, the work of
the children was but half done. The question arose. Shall
not the children live purely, simply, and spontaneously in
music first, and sing in sweet, true tones? Can we, in music
with children, ever sacrifice the result for which we work,
to the best theory in the world? Can we put theory before
practice, when music is to be gained?
Among the educational exhibits we saw something
which would catch the eye of every teacher inquiring after
the how to present things in the "new kindergarten way" to
children.
It is an attempt to make music notation easy to children,
by substituting, for notes, flowers and 'birds and anything
they may be singing about. Here are squirrels frisking and
birds flitting about the staff in most happy and ingenious
style. For every day a new play of fancy, new pictures,
new eye concepts; but how about the ear, and how about
the intervals, — which seems to be the main point? Whether
notes or daisies, is not the work to be done, the same? In
this day of "fads" we must be careful not to sacrifice prin-
ciple for pretty methods of working. — A Kindergart7ier.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 1 37
FOR COLUMBUS' BIRTHDAY.
I send you a song which we greatly enjoyed in our kin-
dergarten last fall. I found in an educational journal some
interesting rhymes about Columbus, to be sung to the tune
"Comin' Through the Rye." I am sorry not to be able to
give the author's name. We changed many of the words, as
they were beyond the comprehension of our children. I
send you our version of it.
LONG TIME AGO.
(Tune, "Comin' Through the Rye.")
Once a boy both brave and noble,
Long time ago,
Down beside the ocean wandered.
Long time ago;
Down beside the bright blue waters
Oft he used to go.
And he learned to be a sailor.
Long time ago.
Many thought the earth was flattened.
Long time ago;
Some there were who said 'twas rounded,
Long time ago.
Then said Christopher Columbus,
"Why not westward go?
I the land, the land will show you" —
Long time ago.
When he asked for ships and sailors.
Long time ago,
Said the king, "You're wildly dreaming,
No, no, no, no!"
Then to Spain went brave Columbus;
The good Queen said, "Go."
And she gave him ships and sailors.
Long time ago.
Then with vessels three he started.
Long time ago —
Then with vessels three he started.
Long time ago.
138 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Ten long weeks they sailed to westward;
Long the way, and slow,
Then — the land, the land they sighted!
Four hundred years ago.
An excellent way to connect the past with the present is,
before singing the song, to furnish each child with a small
flag which may be laid near at hand or fastened in the dress,
leaving the hands free for gesture; then after the words,
"The land, the land they sighted, four hundred years ago,"
all raise their flags and sing one verse of "America." —
F. R. G.
PURE MUSIC.
What is pure music? Melody, harmony, rhythm, — the
essence of poetry, and therefore requiring no word-pig-
ments for its transference to the pure canvas of the child
mind and heart. The kindergarten needs this pure music
many times during the day, to bring the hush of reverence,
kindle the lamp of love, open the door to joy, paint the
cheeks with life's flush. The kindergarten needs those who,
out of a childlike heart and manhood's and womanhood's
intelligence (musical), can, through that universal instrument,
the piano, si/ig pure music purely — that is to say, truth-
fully— to the minds and hearts of the little ones.
What could be more beautiful than the following little
song of the three angels of Love, Purity, and Beauty, to
prepare mind and heart for a vocal morning song, or the
opening study or play of the children?
It looks very simple to you, my good fairy of the "nim-
ble Jacks," but it may cost you a good night's vigil to reach
the mastery of its thought and form, so that you can speak
out of a full mind and heart.
Here is its motto:
Three angels once sang so sweet a refrain,
That deep into heaven God caught the clear strain.
Let these three angels of your thought transform the
piano into a radiant messenger from the kingdom of heaven
— harmony. — Calvin B. Cady, Chicago Conservatory.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
139
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140 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
AUTUMN LEAVES.
Crimson and scarlet and yellow,
Emerald turning to gold,
Shimmering here in the sunlight.
Shivering there in the cold;
Waving farewells as the tempest
Ruthlessly tears them apart,
Fluttering, dancing, and rustling,
As hither and thither they dart.
Recklessly stemming the rapids.
Lazily swimming the pool.
Playing "I spy" with a down-head
Under a puffy toadstool;
Wreathes for the walls of her dwelling
Each neat little housekeeper weaves;
There, amid delicate fern-sprays.
Nestle the bright autumn leaves.
Emma Lee Benedict.
HOW THE milkweed TOOK WINGS.
It was a warm midsummer day. While the bees were
humming around the flowers where they gathered their
honey, and the birds were searching food for their little
babies, a beautiful butterfly flitted about, alighting now on
this, now on that flower.
Down in one corner of a meadow ran a little brook, with
many pretty flowers bordering its edges. The air was cool
and comfortable here, even on this hot day, for some
friendly trees made a little grove, spreading wide their
strong branches to shelter and shade the flowers growing
about their roots.
Two little girls, Annie and Elsie, who lived in the farm-
house on the top of the hill, often came here to play.
They built many houses with the sticks and leaves which
fell from the trees, making carpets of pretty mosses that
cuddled close to their roots. Then sometimes they would
take off their shoes and stockings and wade in the brook.
Such fun! They found so many nice round stones in the
bottom of the brook, and queer polliwogs!
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. I4I
This afternoon Annie and Elsie sat under the trees,
trimming their hats with big yellow daisies. Suddenly An-
nie said: "Oh, Elsie, see that lovely butterfly!" "Where?"
said Elsie. "On those milkweed blossoms close by the
brook," answered Annie. Sure enough, our pretty butter-
fly had alighted on some milkweed blossoms. He stayed
there still for a moment, as if to rest his wings, which were
closed over his back. As he lingered there he heard a lit-
tle voice say: "How nice it must be to be a butterfly, and
go wherever you wish! "
The butterfly at first could not tell where the voice came
from; but as he listened he was sure something was talking
within the little flowers. "Who are you, and where are
you?" he asked.
And the little voice answered, "Oh, you cannot see me;
I am a tiny little thing. I have a great many brothers and
sisters growing here with me. Our mamma flower calls us
her baby seeds. We are all very close together, our house
is so small. We have had happy times; the sun has shone
on us, and the rain and dew have given us drink when we
were thirsty, and we have grown together all summer; but
I do think it must be much nicer to be a butterfly, and not
always have to stay in just the same place, but go wherever
you want to."
The butterfly opened his wings and lifted himself up
into the air, but alighted again on the milkweed blossoms,
and said, just as he started to fly away: "Keep on growing,
little seed, and when you are 'full grown and old enough,
you too shall fly. Mr. Wind will take you and play with
you and toss you about until you will be glad to alight, just
as I do to rest my wings." He opened his wings and flew
away.
What became of the little seed? It grew; its brothers
and sisters grew; and the little house they lived in grew.
At last the house was no longer green, but brown, — grow-
ing browner every day. One morning it cracked open,
making a long door of one whole side. The little seeds
looked out, and saw, for the first time, the great, lovely
Vol. 6-9
142
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
world. Some of the seeds that were bolder than the others
actually scrambled out of the door; but not daring to leave
the house, they clung
to the outside. As
they sat there and
looked at each other,
they saw that they too
had changed. They
weie not dressed in
ight green now
but wore dark
brown instead.
How queer
everything was!
One of the little
seeds said, "I
do believe what
the butterfly
said is really
true, and that I shall
fly away. I feel very
light and strange. This
funny silky stuff that is
spread out around me
must be my wings. I
do wish Mr. Wind would
come and take me off
with him; I want to see
all of this big, beautiful
world."
Mr. Wind was very
busy those days, so
many things needed a
good blowing and air-
ing, and soon he would have to shake off all the leaves from
the trees, as they must come to the ground and keep the
seeds and plants warm. Now he came from the north full
of business; but as he hurried along he blew upon the milk-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. I43
weed seeds, and oh! what a time there was! It seemed as
if the seeds had each fifty wings! He whirled them around,
tossed them up and down, now to the right and now to the
left. Occasionally one would get dizzy and stop for a mo-
ment on some plant; but Mr. Wind would not let him rest,
and away they all went, whirling, dancing, skipping, flying.
Suddenly Mr. Wind thought of all the other things he had
to do, and was gone as quickly as he came.
"Well, what the butterfly told me has come true," said
the little seed. "How warm this sunlight feels! I really
believe I am sleepy. I guess. I will go — to — sleep."
Mr. Wind had left him on some soft earth close by the
great red barn, and there he fell asleep. When the cold
rains came they did not wake him; he only settled more
deeply into his earthy bed. One night Jack Frost touched
all the leaves of the trees, and they turned different colors,
— some red, some yellow, some brown, and some orange.
Now Mr. Wind had his work to do, and he did it well; for
in a few days the leaves left the trees and covered the earth
with a warm blanket. Some of them covered our little seed
close by the barn. Soon the snowflakes came, and every-
thing was buried under their white coverlet.
The plants and seeds slept until the warm springtime.
Then the bluebirds and robins came home from their long
southern journey; the buds of the trees grew, and the little
leaves unfolded; the snowdrops and crocuses and dande-
lions blossomed, and it was time for our little seed to grow.
He had not been idle a single moment. Annie and Elsie
were playing around their papa's barn, picking dandelions
and digging in the sweet earth. It was here, close to the
red barn, that they found the milkweed growing tall and
green. — Margaret Dezvey .
(In preparing stories and talks for the children of my kindergarten,
I felt the need of a story which should trace the whole history, as it
were, of the seed. The above was arranged for that purpose. It has
an added interest when illustrated with the milkweed pods and seeds,
such as are kept in many kindergartens. The whirling and flying of
the winged seeds may be experienced by the children themselves, as
well as by blowing the seeds about the room. — M. D.)
[See poem, "Little Seed Babies," in Child-Garden for September.]
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
WHAT ABOUT BABY's BIRTHDAY?
The keeping of birthdays is as salutary to the experi-
ence of childhood as it is universal to the race. It should
always be an occasion of simple pleasure and childish fer-
vor. A large birthday /tVt' is quite unnecessary to accom-
plish these results. Simple preparations, in which the child
may take a part, are counted among the greatest epochs of
childhood. It is a quaint German custom to have the birth-
day child rise early on his day, and call at the door of his
god-parents to wish them a happy day. These good people
greet him in turn, adding a few words of serious comment
on life, often couched in the form of an adage which the
child must remember. It has been the experience of many
to remember these far on into later life, preserving the bene-
diction thus pronounced upon childhood's morning.
It might well be reckoned a privilege on birthdays which
come such long years apart, for the little folks to make a
visit to grandparents. Grandmamma will be sure to tell the
ever-welcome story of when Mary first came to father and
mother; how small she was; how short her yellow hair; and
her queer little eyes that were always shutting up tight.
As she draws this picture, Mary is contrasting every step
with how big she now is; how strong her legs, and how long
her curls. Grandma traces the story of how Mary first
learned to say "mamma," one day when she awoke from
her nap; how she learned to walk on Christmas, and how,
now that she was such a great girl, she would soon be ready
for school.
Such reviews of the past are as full of interest to a four-
year-old child as are the remotest stories of ancient history
to men of older years. This is the first making of history
to the child. It helps him tally his growth physical, as in
time he will discern his inner growth. The mother should
never depreciate or regret the fact that her baby is "grow-
ing up." To grow is his business in life, and parents should
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. I45
be the last to interfere with this divine purpose. The birth-
day must be a happy, exuberant day, full of work and inter-
course with the various members of the family. It is a wise
plan, toward the close of the day by which this particular
child has* been so markedly singled out, to tell a simple
story about some one's else birthday; or, as the family are
gathered together, for each member to tell some experience
on his or her birthday. This overcomes any undue self-
importance which might be developed in the birthday
child's mind, as well as universalizes the blessing as coming
to all. The following is the true story of a certain baby's
birthday:
We called him Baby, but his last birthday made him five
years old. I must tell you about how we celebrated this
fifth birthday. It came on Saturday, and Baby was so full
of "becoming a great boy," that he told everyone he saw
for a week — " Going to have a birthday pretty soon." Baby
went down town with Aunt Mary on Saturday morning.
While he was gone we set a nice big sand table under the
apple tree in the back yard, and filled it with fresh white
sand from the lake shore. There were a few little presents
for our five-year-old boy, — one for each year. These we
buried deep in the sand. We planted flowers around the
edge of the table and wrote Baby's name, "Stephen,"
through the middle, from left to right. We had some
bright kindergarten sticks, which we laid all along the
letters of his name. They were of all colors. Aunt Mary
said afterwards, we might have used acorns or daisies just
as well. Under the name were five long, straight lines, —
one, two, three, four, five. Soon Baby came back, and the
little face was bright and wondering when he discovered
the table. "See! see! here is Baby's name!" It was not
long before he was playing in the sand, discovering the
bundles one by one. His delight was as great as our own.
After a good play, and his usual bowl of crackers and milk,
he took a nap, his face^covered with one generous smile as
he slept. After dinner we all went together for a quiet row
on the river, and Baby Stephen was now as quietly happy
146 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
as before he was boisterous. He fell asleep in the boat, and
never knew how he got to bed or who tucked him in. And
that was the end of Baby's birthday.
CHILD TRAINING VERSUS TAMING.
Child energy is usually supplied in sufficient quantity
by nature, the purpose of training being to direct it into
proper channels. Like all of the direct gifts of God, it de-
mands, for its proper development, healthy surroundings.
The too-frequent efforts made by parents and teachers to
curb and restrain the healthy expression of action is cer-
tain to defeat, to some extent, its object, by producing an
abnormal growth, by substituting for the natural instincts
given the lowest as well as the highest order of the animal
kingdom for its complete development, an unnatural nature,
wholly or in part deficient of certain qualities required for
its sphere in life. So common has this miscarriage of at-
tempts at training become, that it is hardly to be wondered
at that many have been undecided whether the best train-
ing is not an entire absence of any check beyond that
which is necessary to counteract artificial influences, with
which every child comes in contact.
It is evident, however, that this course would cause to a
great extent an abnormal development on the animal side,
— a result at least as undesirable as its opposite. The true
end to be aimed at, in formulating any course of training, is
to give the hearty energies of childhood full swing, to al-
low them the most complete development nature will per-
mit, and at the same time to turn this splendid physical
development into the channels of intellectual growth; to
depend upon, rather than curb, the physical for the attain-
ment of the highest intellectual growth.
Physical nature supplemented by the healthy brain, is a
close attribute of the moral nature; without it, a dangerous
approach to an immoral one. On the other hand, brain
growth without the physical development to sustain it,
leads either to the destruction of the body or to the direct-
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. I47
ing- of the mental faculties into most unhealthy channels.
Each is a naturally provided check upon the other, at the
same time that both are mutual supporters, and partners in
the higher product, — a moral life. The importance, then,
of keeping each in touch with the other, and stimulating
the growth of neither beyond that of its mate, cannot well
be overestimated. But the very common neglect of this
point, and its results, are seen about us every day.
Here is an over-cautious mother, who, fearing that a lit-
tle healthy brain work will be detrimental to her child's
health, discourages, all attempts at knowledge seeking.
The brain demands action, and either — under the influence
of the unnatural condition placed upon it — becomes dwarfed
and warped, or seeks some unhealthy outlet. Or an ambi-
tious teacher forgets the body, in her efforts to stimulate
the mental faculties. The results of this are too well known
to need repeating here; and yet they are every day repeated
in actual life. Both of these cases are caused by over-care
in one of the two directions. Similar consequences or
worse may result from under-care. It is by no means rare
to see the energetic call for action in children, constantly
thwarted by the authority of parent or teacher: "Johnny
must be quiet;" or "must not ask so many questions;" and
the demands of nature must give way to the commands of
human caprice. In the course of time one of two results
must come. Either the child listens to nature, and thus
becomes rebellious against human control, or else he sub-
mits to being robbed of his very life. " I wonder what
makes John so lazy. He used to have energy enough."
Yes; what? It has been crushed out of him by years of
enforced idleness.
I know it is not always pleasant to have the labor of
perhaps a day or week destroyed by mischievous hands;
but I would rather that than to destroy the motive force of
a human life, — energy. It is not always agreeable to an-
swer questions constantly; but we may never have a more
productive employment. I know the trainer of that child
in whom the instinct of action is sometimes so unpleasant
148 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
must be more patient, thoughtful, and tactful than for its
quieter mate; I also know, that with this extra patience,
thought, and tact, there is a higher future of action for the
first than for the second. The flutterings of today foretell
the stronger flight for tomorrow. I would as soon think of
clipping the wings of the young bird that it might not use
them beyond its strength, as to attempt curtailing the natu-
ral energies of youth, — the physical forces, the mental
forces. Child taming is not child training; nor will the
first be necessary if the second is done properly. But let
me say again, to train is to build up, to strengthen, not de-
stroy; to guide, not to restrict; and, greatest of all, to ele-
vate and ennoble. — Wilder Grahame.
UNMEASURED RESULTS.
The cities of the Netherlands could well have afforded
to meddle in other people's business and establish kinder-
gartens throughout all Spain, if thereby the Duke of Alva
had learned to say upon his baby fingers:
This is the mother so good and dear,
This is the father so full of cheer,
This is the brother so strong and tall,
This is the sister who plays with her doll,
And this is the baby, the pet of them all;
Behold the good family, great and small.
That same hand could then never have indited the exultant
message — "We butchered the whole garrison! Not a moth-
er's son was left alive."
If the members of the Bonaparte family had gone to
kindergarten, played with the Third Gift, and learned the
possibilities of eight little cubes, they might have learned to
be content with what they had, and stopped grabbing for
the blocks belonging to their next-door neighbors. In our
own America, the colonists, in their extreme poverty, could
well have afforded to pay teachers to sit up nights to study
up cunning devices to teach the baby minds of that day
that all black and white belonged on the circle and had an
equal right to a "good time."
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 1 49
When we try to measure results, we are to remember
that mothers do not say, I must weigh my child to be sure
he is growing. It may be a case of fatty degeneration due
to over-feeding, even in a child. The processes of nutri-
tion and assimilation are invisible. The healthy balance
between food and exercise, waste and repair, cannot be
weighed. There is a kingdom that "cometh not with obser-
vation." Can you find a tape measure that will tell just the
value of a love of plant life? ' A little girl the other day in
the circle game, on receiving the gift of a flower, raised it
in her hand and gleefully repeated the words of her finger
play:
Till the plant some happy day
Blossoms into flowers.
Where is the board of education that can furnish a rule
to measure the strength and the worth of that tendency?
Who can estimate the worth of a nature broadened, deep-
ened, and quickened?
The kindergarten is the poetic child of the nineteenth
century. Upon the head of this growing child the hand of
the century rests most lovingly. To this the hearts of men
are turning with the hope that this child shall bring to both
home and school the blessings of a new life. — Dora H.J.
Turner.
NOTES FROM OUR MOTHERS' PARLIAMENT.
Every sweet, happy circle of children about a sympa-
thetic mother, whether on an avenue o,r in the alleyway, is a
kindergarten. If this condition lasts but ten minutes in the
day, it is, for the time being, kindergarten. If it is ex-
tended over the whole day, where the mother goes about
her work, gladly assisted by the children at her heels, all
working together harmoniously to a worthy end, this is kin-
dergarten. If the mother has tact enough to discover her
children's natural bents, and wit enough to follow this out,
in a sound, normal way, she is a kindergartner. A home
where every child is an integral part, not only to be done
for, but to do for others, is the ideal kindergarten.
150 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Many a so-called kindergarten is a far more artificial
surrounding and more seriously abnormal environment than
is the street or the unlettered home. Babies are not to be
taught in the true kindergarten, any more than in the true
nursery. They should live as does the brood of chicks,
close to the mother, but always as one among many others.
Folding papers, piling blocks, weaving a few mats, —
these things do not constitute the kindergarten. Gesture
songs are not always kindergarten songs. A thoroughly
drilled roomful of children, who always fold their hands in
a proper way, and never stir out of position, is not proof
sufficient of a kindergarten.
A rattle is by no means an instrument which adds to the
harmonious development of a child. The nervousness of a
race may be traced to nurses who jump and rock children
out of their wits or shake unmelodious rattles to astonish
them into being quiet. Add an occasional ghost story,
and numerous threats to the effect of policemen and "bugoo
man," and you have an adequate mixture which would upset
the fiber of an oak tree, to say nothing of a tender babe in
arms.
It is not enough to feed and clothe a child. It is not
enough to educate him and start him in the business of life.
He must be cherished, nourished, and cultured by human
fellowship.
HENRY S WOODPECKER.
One warm October day, Mabel was lying on the grass
under an old oak tree and looking up into its branches,
when she noticed a hole in the trunk of the tree just large
enough for her to put in her little hand. She called Henry
to look at it. He said it was like the holes the squirrels
hid their acorns in, and he was going up to see. So he
climbed up the tree and tried to look in, but he could see
nothing; then he reached in and down to the bottom of it,
and it was all smooth, with only a few bits of soft wood and
a few pieces of white eggshell there.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT,
151
Then he remembered one day in the spring, when he was
making a whistle, sitting on the grass under this very tree,
and he heard some one knocking, knocking. It sounded
like some one knocking at the door, — "tap-tap, tap-tap," —
only there was no door there to knock at; or like a carpen-
ter hammering with a small hammer, — "rat-tat, rat-tat," —
but no carpenter was there. Henry looked all around,
under the bushes, up in the tree; there was no one.
Then he sat still and listened: "rat-tat. rat-tat, rat-tat,"
right over his head. He looked up again and saw a red-
headed woodpecker at work with his sharp, strong pickax.
"Pick, pick;" his hard bill went
right into the bark of the tree.
Some little chips fell at Henry's
feet on the grass. Mr. Woodpecker
looked down at Henry, but as he
stood perfectly still, the carpenter
did not seem to mind, but went on
with his work. He would turn his
little head to one side and listen,
then pick away as busily as any
housebuilder you ever saw; and
this was what he was doing, — mak-
ing a house for his family to live in.
at his work!
But where are all the babies now?
where are Papa and Mamma Woodpecker?
Mabel and Henry are going to watch for them, and see
if they stay near the old nest all winter, or if they go away
to the South, like the barn swallows and martins.
They have not forgotten what a great time the martins
had last October, when they all packed up and started off
one day for their journey south. Everyone went just that
one day. Henry remembered because it was his birthday
— the tenth of October. Hundreds of martins came from
all around, and flew about, and talked and talked, and grew
more and more excited, until they started off from the top
of the maple trees; and there was not a martin to be seen
How happy he was
Who can tell? And
152 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
that afternoon, nor the next day, nor all winter long. —
Susa?i P. Clement, Raci?ie, Wis.
Note. — The red-headed woodpecker has a stout bi//, which serves
for a pickax; a long, slim tongue, sticky at the end, which he runs into
the holes he has made, to bring out the grub which he had heard at
work there, and to reach which he was boring the hole; his stout toes
stand two forward and two back, to help him in running sideways
around the tree, and in holding on tight to the tree while he works; his
tail, too, is as good as another leg; so strong and stiff that he pushes it
against the bark of the tree for a prop to keep him steady while he
hammers. His nest, hollowed out of a tree, is not lined; eggs, translu-
cent white. He does not migrate.
These facts are intended for the parents' guide, not for children's
information, only so far as they can discover them from the birds, a
stuffed bird, or pictures. Stuff birds, but do not stuff children. — 5". P. C.
[See the story and song of the woodpecker, May Child-Garden. ^
NAMED AT THE CRECHE.
The baby was five months old, and, as often happens,
the father and mother disagreed on the subject of the little
fellow's name. When either offered a suggestion in this
direction the other was apt to cite the fact of extreme
youth as an argument in favor of devoting more time to the
selection of a patronymic. But this was only a harmless
subterfuge and a pleasing little piece of fiction played by
the parents. It deceived themselves, but not each other.
It was a species of sparring for an opening wherein one or
the other hoped to get in the name of his or her selection.
The struggle for the honor of giving the baby a name ended
one day last week in the nursery of the Children's Building
at Jackson Park, and the outwitted little mother will doubt-
less always think the baby's father took an unfair advan-
tage. This is how it happened: Mr. and Mrs. Samis, of
Spokane, Wash., came to the Fair, and of course brought
the baby along. The young couple had strolled through
the creche one day, and admired the excellent care be-
stowed on the babies left there by parents who wished to
be unencumbered while sight-seeing. The next day they
surrendered their own little silken-haired darling to the care
of the creche. Before affixing a numbered brass tag to the
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 1 53
baby, the assistant matron requested Mr. Samis to register
the child's and the parents' name, permanent and temporary-
residence, etc. Here was the father's golden opportunity;
and he grasped it. He wrote on the register "V. Elton
Samis," as he had always determined his son should be
called. He turned the tag over to his wife, who, when she
called for the baby at night, was requested to give the
baby's name. "We haven't named him yet," replied Mrs.
Samis. "But he must have been named or he couldn't have
been received," persisted the matron. "The baby's name,"
announced the father, "is V. Elton Samis. It went on rec-
ord this morning, and the record stands." Then Mrs.
Samis realized that she had been duped. It was finally
agreed to say no more about it, and as an expression of
gratitude for what the Children's Building had done for
him, Mr. Samis subscribed five dollars to the creche.
WORK IS WORSHIP.
The following questions were asked at a recent mothers'
parliament, in quick succession: What would you do with a
lazy child.? What would you do for a nervous child? How
would you keep a restless boy quiet? What would you do
to rouse an aimless, listless girl of six years? What would
be kindergarten discipline for a petulant, exasperating
child? The undaunted kindergartner answered them all in
one single word, — a word in which the great sages of all
time have culminated their philosophies — 7vork. Work is
not drudgery. That work which is fitted to the daily, en-
larging capacity of a child has the charm and tense interest
which invigorates the winning oarsman. The good judg-
ment required to so distribute effort to meet the energy
ready to be put forth, is the art of child culture. As has
been well said, occupation is the salvation of all disciplinary
needs. A group of friends were recently discussing the
religious qualities of a certain lady. One of the speakers
said, with deep emphasis, "I don't know her creed, nor
where she goes to church; but a woman who works with
such energy and constancy has gotten hold of the philoso-
154 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
phy of all religion." At the recent religious parliament
held in Chicago, a great divine defined soul as "energy
applied." Carlyle, who was an indomitable worker in what-
ever he undertook, declares, in his "Sartor Resartus":
"Work is worship." Uncounted, unmeasured effort is the
sign of utter self-forgetfulness. — A. H.
WHAT THE "child-garden" BRINGS TO THE HOME.
Mothers will find Child- Garden, the children's magazine
of story, song, and play, full of such suggestive matter as
will always solve the riddle-answer made to the petition for
a story: "A story, my dear; what shall it be?" A special
feature of the little monthly is, that it brings the seasonable
science and nature stories and songs, as well as those appro-
priate to the varying holidays of each month. It never
brings a rhyme or story whose only mission is being "cute."
It aims to feed children hearty, sound, and none the less
sweet meat. It brings many suggestions of things to do,
things to learn, and things to absorb. One father says: "It
comes the first week of the month, and keeps the children
busy the other three, working out all the busy thoughts and
things it has brought. The secret of good story-telling for
children is to lead up to the climax in such a way that the
child is impelled to seize upon it himself." Another corre-
spondent writes: "We do not call it the children's paper.
It is our family and home magazine." Today's mail brings
a cordial letter from a father of a six-year-old daughter, in
which he says, among other gratifying words:
"The discovery is no new one that ^Ci^r/ writing for wee folk is inter-
esting to the children of riper years. You will hardly need to be told
that not alone the children, but their parents, in this family, send their
sincere and hearty thanks and congratulations to you as editors of the
Child-Garden, for the success thus far achieved, with best wishes for its
continuance."
Child-Garden is largely the volunteer work of a number
of contributors who desire to see the kindergarten thought
made accessible to the home. It requires no technical
knowledge on the part of parents, but applies the essence
of this theory in every story, song, or play.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 1 55
THE children's GARDEN.
Once, by a very high mountain,
In a place called "Children's Dell,"
There was planted a lovely garden
Where the little folks might dwell.
It wasn't like other gardens.
With flowers you must not touch.
And grass that is not to be walked on,
And fountains that spoil so much;
And trees that grow 'way up above you,
And birds that fly over your head,
And posies so high }'ou can't reach them,
With spikes round the flower bed.
Oh, this was a wonderful garden.
Where naught could be hurt, you see!
The flowers bloomed to be gathered;
The grass said, "Roll on me."
The pond that lay in the center
You could play in and needn't drown;
And the fish weren't always hiding,
But stayed where they might be found.
Then when the children were hungry.
In an arbor, so cozy and snug,
They ate gingerbread men and horses,
And drank milk from a crystal mug.
When the sun set over the garden.
The children left their play
And went home to bed and mother.
To dream of another day.
— Annie C. Scott.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
The Kindergarte7i Union comes, dated Baltimore, September, 1893.
It is an eight-page pamphlet sheet, and promises to be one more lever
in the kindergarten cause. Its price is fifty cents a year; it is issued
alternate months, and brings practice work, stories, reports, and articles
appropriate to the kindergarten work. The editor is Miss Esther Jack-
son; address, 326 Equitable Building, Baltimore, Md. The growing
interest in the work in Mai-yland and surrounding states justifies this
publication. We are glad for its existence, and know that the manage-
ment of the Union will never regret the personal effort and immeasur-
able good will which are necessary to make similar publications a suc-
cess.
The first issue of the Kindo-garten News, under its new management,
fulfills all the unwritten pledges which its readers are justified in expect-
ing from the Milton Bradley firm. The frontispiece is an excellent cut
of Miss Nqra Smith, with sketch written by her student and colleague,
Miss Martha Sanford, of Worcester, Mass. There is much of current
news and interest. The new editor, Mr. Henry Blake, who has long
been identified with the firm, is in a position to wield great influence
among the ever-growing rank and* file of kindergartners. In his edi-
torial introduction Mr. Blake makes the following comment, which all
friends of the previous publisher will cordially second: "To Mr. Allen
and his colaborers The iVeivs owes what it is, and should success attend
it in coming time, we must give large credit to those who toiled in this
particular field before we entered it."
Popular Astronomy, volume I, number i, has reached us. It is pre-
pared expressly for popular readers, teachers, and amateur students of
astronomy. It treats of all astronomical topics, but not in a technical
manner, and is well illustrated. Among articles on the index face of
this first number are the following, which elicit interest: Astronomy with
a Small Camera; A Lesson on Harvest Moon; Shooting Stars — How to
Observe Them and What They Teach. This is an open field, and one
which the teachers and parents of young children will find not only en-
joyable, but eminently profitable. Swinging in a hammock by moon-
light is made more "heavenly" when the mystery of the stars is made
the topic of conversation, even with little children. Popular Astronomy
is published monthly by the Carleton College, Northfield, Minn.; price
§2. 50 per year.
" Pieces to Speak," by Emma Lee Benedict, is just published by Lee
& Shepard, Boston; price 50 cts.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. . 1 57
The making of children's books is a modern art. The Jane Andrews
books, heretofore pubHshed by Lee & Shepard, of Boston, are now
under the management of the Ginn Publishing Co. The volume of the
"Seven Little Sisters" has an introductory memorial to Jane Andrews,
written by Louisa Parsons Hopkins, of Boston. This number of the
Kindergarten Magazine contains an article written by Margaret
Andrews Allen, the sister of Miss Jane Andrews, in which she traces
the growth of the popular stories for children in a most interesting
manner.
"Color in the Kindergarten" is a new manual of the theory of color
and the practical use of color material in the kindergarten, by Mr. Mil-
ton Bradley; price 25 cts.
The Second Musical Congress Number of the Music Review of Chi-
cago brings a most valuable collection of the best papers, thoughts, and
discussions called forth by the July Columbian Congress. In reading
this periodical one is ever conscious of a clear-sighted individuality on
the part of its editor, Mr. Calvin B. Cady. There is a flavor throughout
the Review which belongs to it, and to no other magazine of this depart-
ment of art. Among the interesting papers of this number is one on the
Influence of Women's Musical Clubs in America, by Mrs. Theodore
Thomas; Music in Philanthropic Work, by Miss Charlotte Mulligan, of
Buffalo, whose practical experience in this line has probably been un-
equaled. The usual music reviews and literary notes by the editor are
full of suggestion and discrimination. The Music Review is published
by Clayton F. Summy, 174 Wabash Ave., Chicago; price $2.
" Manu et Mente," a text-book of woi'king drawings of models in
sloyd, adapted to American schools, has been brought out during the
past summer by the Sloyd Training School of Boston. This handbook
contains forty-six progressively arranged illustrations of models as
adapted to pupils from nine to fifteen years. It also brings concise but
clear descriptions of the exercises and tools, as well as kinds of wood
employed; also illustrations of the most prominent working positions.
This latter is of great importance to the quality of work, as well as de-
velopment of students. The author of this book is Mr. Gustav Larsson,
principal of the sloyd training school located on Appleton street, Boston.
Mr. Larsson was a student in Naas, Sweden, after investigating and ma-
turing several special lines of this work, including cabinetmaking,
wood carving, and general wood turning. Through his own experience
Mr. Larsson is prepared to distinguish most closely between hand work
which supplies shops at the expense of men, and that handicraft by
which the individual evolves himself. He expresses himself more fully
in the article on page 1 13 of this number. The price of the text-book is
$1.50, and it can be supplied direct by the Kindergarten Literature Co.;
also, by the same author, the " Portfolio of Working Drawings," and
"Whittling in the School Room."
Vol. 6-10
158 . THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The " Prang Course of Art Education for the Public Schools," comes
In an illustrated fifty-page pamphlet, which in itself is an artistic pro-
duction, and embodies the growth of a great educational movement ex-
tending over twenty years of experiment.
The Public School Journal of Bloomington, 111., has caught the
spirit of the time, and comes each month with bright suggestions, as
well as varied experimental work. This latter work opens the eyes of
teachers, and an educational journal can do no better than give its
readers suggestive experiences, leaving them to formulate their own
conclusions.
The Alumni Association of the Chicago Free Kindergarten Normal
School is issuing a series of booklets, the first two of which are already
in print. "Stories as a Mode of Thinking," by Richard G. Moulton, is
the first, which, in substance, is a lecture delivered in his regular Uni-
versity Extension work of last year. The second is on physical culture,
by Margaret C. Morley, author of "The Song of Life." These are
called the " Star Series," and can be secured for a nommal price of the
Alumni Association at the Armour Institute.
" Practical Suggestions for Kindergartners, Primary Teachers, and
Mothers," is the title of a large volume just brought out by C. B. Wood-
ward Co., St. Louis. Jeannette R. Gregory, an experienced Kindergart-
ner of that city, has prepared this program, with suitable talks, stories,
and illustrations to the extent of two hundred and thirty pages, taking
the Froebel Mother-Play Songs as the basis for the same. We read in
the introductory: The program is based upon the principle of relation-
ships. Every child must adapt himself to three great relationships, —
nature, man, and God. Miss Gregory has produced an exhaustive vol-
ume, providing a program for every day in the year, and most system-
atically evolving each day's work from the preceding. She has drawn
upon the best story-writers for help, and has compiled these appropri-
ate to the season and the scope of the child.
FIELD NOTES.
The Kindergarteti in India.— " I believe the kindergarten friends in
America will be glad to know that kindergarten work is making a be-
ginning in India. During my nine years of service in this land I felt
that this system was needed, so on my return to America, two years
ago, I took the normal course. Friends gave me money to buy ma-
terials, and I have begun kindergarten work in my own girls' school in
this place. As yet the system is quite new to all here. Lately I have
been writing it up for both English and Hmdoostanee papers, and about
two weeks ago gave a talk on this subject before the educated gentle-
men of Aligarh. I could not give it before the native ladies, since they
are secluded in the zenanas, and are never allowed to come out. This
talk was in English. I never met a more enthusiastic company. They
were delighted with this, to them, new system. I was requested to hold
another meeting, this one to be in Hindoostanee, for the benefit of those
who do not understand English. I was asked also to open up a branch
kindergarten school for those in the city who are too far away to attend
school where we now hold it. We have nine high-caste Hindoo pupils
now, and would have more if they had conveyances for coming. I shall
open up this branch school, and afterwards, when we get our new build-
ings near the city, will have all together. This kindergarten work has
been the means of making many friends for us among the educated
natives. There are fully eighty millions of little children among India's
two hundred and eighty-five millions. These are only the little ones;
the older children are not included. There are more little children in
India than the entire population of the United States."
This extract is made from the letter of Mrs. J. C. Lawson, from
Aligarh, India, who is an enthusiastic missionary, in the right sense of
that word. The kindergarten will appeal to the Oriental thought, we
fully believe. It should never be used as a means of winning their in-
terest in the church mission. Let it stand on its own merit as a uni-
versal Christianity, and soon the so-called "heathen" will reach out
toward it. We believe that if every foreign missionary could be armed
with a sound, rational kindergarten training it would add more power
to his or her work, than any other preparation can do.
The Toronto Normal School Journal brmgs, in a recent number, a
sketch of the development of the Kindergarten system in Canada, writ-
ten by Miss E. Bolton of Ottawa. We reprint the following paragraphs:
"About fifteen years ago James L. Hughes, inspector of public schools
in Toronto, became convinced of the value of kindergarten training.
In order to gain sympathy for the movement, Mr. Hughes established
l60 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
a system of weekly talks, on new methods, with his primary teachers,
getting them thoroughly permeated with the idea that the only true basis
of education is the child's 'own activity,' or, to use Froebel's formula,
'From life, through life, to life' — from living experience, through living
thought, to living action. His teachers thus prepared to receive kinder-
garten prmciples, the school board and the Minister of Education for
Ontario invited Miss Blow of St. Louis, one of the ablest exponents of
the system in America, to come to Toronto and address the students of
the normal school as well as the teachers in the city schools, on kinder-
garten principles, Mrs. Hubbard, one of Miss Blow's teachers, teaching
about thirty of the songs to the students and teachers.
"In December, 1882, or at the close of their visit, the school board,
advised by Mr. Hughes, asked Miss Marean, a pupil of Madam Kraus-
Boelte, to go to St. Louis for one year to study the working of the kin-
dergarten as conducted in the public schools of that city under the
fostering care of Miss Blow. In September, 1883, Miss Marean returned
to Toronto and opened the first kindergarten in the public schools of
Toronto, having also a class of six young ladies in training. There are
now from thirty-five to forty kindergartens in connection with the public
schools of Toronto, under the supervision of Miss Currie, advised by
Mrs. James L. Hughes (Miss Ada Marean).
"Halifax, Truro, and Yarmouth (Nova Scotia), St. John and Fred-
ericton (New Brunswick), and Winnipeg, Brandon, Regina, and Van-
couver, in the west, each has one or more, not all connected with the
public school system as in Ontario, but all doing good work. Thus the
inspiration of one man's wisely directed effort to realize an ideal system
of education has stimulated an ever-widening insight into the benefits,
to childhood, of a system of education which has for its aim 'the devel-
opment of all the faculties and powers of the child according to inner
organic laws.'"
A SCHOOL for teachers has been opened in Denver, Colo., which vir-
tually opens the kindergarten training to teachers of every grade
and ambition. As the state provides the kindergarten to the public
school system, there will be demand for many kindergartners. The
State Normal School at Greeley provides most excellent training, and
sets the standard for the professional examinations throughout the state,
subject to the state board of education. The kindergarten department
at Greeley is in charge of Miss Laura Tefft. ' The regular catalogue of
this normal school is a valuable addition to any school library, as it
aims at model buildings, class work, curriculum, and professors. Miss
Tefft was one of the many welcome guests in Chicago this summer, and
expresses the sincerest enthusiasm over the prospects of the Greeley
scheme of work. She is a student of the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus of
Berlin, and combines experience with personal fitness for this work.
The state of Colorado is determined to progress along the most vital
lines. We wish the kindergarten pioneers of the "foothill" state God
speed.
Dr. Dittman Finkler, professor in the Lhiiversity of Bonn, in a
German discussion before the Congress of Higher Education, made an
emphatic distinction between the so-called lectures to students, as given
FIELD NOTES. l6l
in Germany and America. The university lecture is never read from a
prepared paper, but delivered by the professor, often without prepara-
tion other than that of years of study and research, into which he reaches
that he may provide his students food and stimulus for thought. The
following figures were full of interest to his hearers: Germany's twenty
universities accommodate 28,000 students, only 700 of whom are Amer-
icans. The government expends 20,000,000 marks annually for the serv-
ice rendered in these universities, while the real estate, improvements,
libraries, and apparatus values reach over 500,000,000 marks.
Fraulein Annette Hamminck Schepel arrived safely in Berlin
the last of August, and writes back to her American friends with great
feeling concerning the life and freedom accorded American women, and
the educational progress which permeates this country. The Pestalozzi-
Froebel Haus exhibit has been left in charge of an able attendant, who
explains its unwritten meaning to visitors every afternoon from three to
five o'clock. • An arrangement has been made to dispose of much of this
exhibit at the close of the Exposition. The four bronze life groups are
for sale, as well as a number of the illustrative drawings. Many of the
latter are the property of the National Gallery of Berlin. A list of
these, and prices, can be further known by inquiring of the Kindergar-
ten Literature Company.
The Columbus Kindergarten Association provides a systematic
course of practical kindergarten work, to which the principals and
teachers of the public schools of that city are cordially invited free of
expense. It also arranges a course of eighteen lectures for the benefit
of mothers, at a nominal expense of $2.50 for the course. The officers
of this association are as follows: President, Mrs. J. W. Brown; first vice
president, Mrs. S. E. Young; second vice president, Mrs. Florence Gill;
financial secretary, Mrs. Geo. T. Spahr; corresponding secretary, Mrs.
H. F. Wilgus; treasurer, Mrs. R. A. Harrison.
" Many of our state and city superintendents are ready to put the
kindergarten into their public schools; but two obstacles confront them:
first, there is a great missionary work to be done in order to secure the
permission and necessary funds from their school boards, the sympathy
and cooperation of their principals and teachers; the second, and by far
the greater, obstacle is that the supply of kindergarten trainers and
teachers is not equal to the demand. The people have decided that
what they want for their children is the kindergarten, and we are not
ready to give it them."
Mrs. Edina Davidson Worden is principal of the kindergarten
normal school of the Glen Industrial Home, Cincinnati, which opened
September 11. This normal class provides a two years' course, with
special feature of classes for primary school teachers and a review
course for kindergartners.
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The Misses Law of Toledo, O., announce extended opportunity and
work in both their kindergartens and normal training classes. These
progressive ladies have arranged a blank certificate to aid parents in
registering the daily growth of their children. This certificate allows
space for observation credits in number, form, color, music, concentra-
tion, originality, construction, execution, attention, and will development.
By carefully following these reports, signed by the principal, parents
are able to supplement the work at home along the needed lines of each
child.
Miss Mary McDowell, president of the kindergarten department
of the national W. C. T. U., opens a private kindergarten in her own
home at Evanston this fall. She will also carry on classes for the study
of child nature, with special reference to adapting the kindergarten
principle to home education. This tendency on the part of kindergart-
ners to meet parents more than half way, is adding greatly to the mo-
mentum of this work. Everyone whose heart is full of the importance
of such study, can do no better than overflow to the profit of others.
Miss Margaret C. West, of Evanston, is in charge of the free
kindergarten under the broad roof-tree of Hull House. This Chicago
social settlement is fast becoming conspicuous as a standard type of the
"successful mission." The kindergarten of Hull House has an oppor-
tunity granted few others, — that of caring for a brood of unkempt wee
ones, and at the same time showing to the many visitors who come there
to see its methods, the power and possibility of this work. Miss West
is eminently the right person in the right place.
Miss Anna M. Pennock, of Lancaster, Pa., announces an oppor-
tunity to young ladies to study the Froebel system, in connection with
her private school and kindergarten. In her circular to parents, setting
forth the pledges of the kindergarten, she wisely adds: "Please do not
expect book instruction in the kindergarten department. That is a pri-
mary work, and should not begin until after the child is six years old.
Kindergarten room is ample in size, light, airy, and pleasant. Examine
it before you enter your children."
The songs which have appeared in the recent numbers of this mag-
azine, as well as Child- Garden, are taken from the New Souvenir Song
Book, arranged by William L. Tomlins, and which contains the music
rendered by the large World's Fair Children's Chorus. Among the
seasonable songs of special interest to kindergartners will be found,
"Far Out at Sea Lived a Little Wave," and " Every Night a Star," and
" There was a Soft-shell Crab."
The Kindergarten Association of South Oil City, Pa., which less than
a year ago numbered six members, has now enrolled thirty-five, with the
prospect of opening their second kindergarten.
FIELD NOTES. . 163
Miss Sarah Stewart, of Philadelphia, has been in Chicago during
the Columbian Fair, as superintendent of the Pennsylvania school ex-
hibit. She reports a most profitable summer,— in fact, a memorable
season. We hope later to reap some of t^he benefit of her summer's
study, in the form of articles for this magazine. Miss Stewart is well
known by her earnest efforts in forwarding the work of the I. K. U.
Miss Emma G. Saulsbury, who is well known to all readers of
Child-Garden and the Kindergarten Magazine, is engaged in work
in the Nashville College for Young Ladies. A series of mythological
plays for young children, by her, will soon be published in the Child-
Garden. These will be suggestive to home plays, for winter evenings,
in which father, mother, and all may participate.
All kindergartners are invited to visit the Uruguayan educational
exhibit in the Agricultural Building, near the central door. The Com-
missioner, Senor Alberto Gomez Ruana, aided by an interpreter, will
take great pleasure in showing the work of that South American state,
and is especially desirous of gathering advice and information, even
criticism, to carry back with him.
The kindergarten has been regularly incorporated into the public
schools of Jamestown, N. Y., with Miss Mina B. Colburn in charge,
Under the direction of Superintendent Rogers, who has been taking pre-
liminary steps to this end for some time. Miss Colburn has just closed
a post-graduate course of study under the Chicago Free Kindergarten
Association.
Kindergartners, teachers, and parents who are inquiring about
books, and where to get them, will find the complete catalogue just pub-
lished by the Kindergarten Literature Company of inestimable value.
It is a descriptive catalogue of the best books for children, by all pub-
lishers. Send a two-cent stamp and secure one of these lists.
Mrs. S. C. Eccleston returns to Parana, Argentine Republic, to
resume her kindergarten work there. She promises to send her many
friends a report of her work through these columns upon her arrival.
Mrs. Eccleston has translated "The Child and Child Nature" into
Spanish for the use of her normal students in Parana.
Miss Frances Newton, the president of the Chicago Kindergarten
Club, spent the summer in conducting the kindergarten work at the
Chautauqua assembly. She reports increased interest from every
source, and for the first time organized regular study classes for parents.
The new calendar of the Chicago Kindergarten Club is in process
of publication, and will as usual bring a correct directory of all its mem-
bers; also of the kindergartens in the city, and other items of growth
and importance, including the prospectus of the coming year's work.
164 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Miss Sara L. Severance writes from West Superior, Wis., of great
growth in the work, which now employs a working force of seventeen
trained enthusiastic kindergartners, and which is less than four years
old. Over six hundred children are enrolled in the kindergartens.
The necessary qualifications for admission to Mrs. Van Kirk's
Philadelphia Training School for Kindergartners are an excellent Eng-
lish education, a true voice for singing, culture and refinement of char-
acter, and a natural love for children.
Miss Mary A. West opens a training school for kindergartners at
Tampa, Fla. The far South is expressing its desire for such progress-
ive measures in a substantial way. Schools are opening at many points
to meet this desire.
Kindergartners or primary teachers who desire to exchange pri-
mary experiments with a vitally interested worker would do well to cor-
respond with Miss Mary E. Beckwith, at 1109 Madison avenue, Balti-
more, Md.
Miss McBride, formerly director of the Galveston (Tex.) Free Kin-
dergartens, has resigned her position, and opens a private school in that
city, — which makes three kindergartens for Galveston.
Morristown, N. J., has a promising free kindergarten association,
with Miss Burr as kindergartner in charge of a successful school of
thirty children.
Mrs. Susan Payne Clement, well known to our readers, has
opened a regularly organized kindergarten training school at her home,
Racine, Wis.
The street between the Woman's Building and the Children's Build-
ing at the Columbian Exposition is called "Kinder Court" on the re-
cent maps.
Mrs. Nora D. Mahew is returned to Los Angeles, Cal., after a sum-
mer in the East, including the World's Fair and the educational con-
gresses.
The Cincinnati Kindergarten Association offers a training to those
who are well qualified to undertake the work,/r^^ of expense.
Madam Van Calcar was the first woman in Holland who appeared
on a platform to plead for the children and their rights.
During the past summer a union of kindergartners for the deaf was
organized, with an opening membership of twenty.
Austria has incorporated the kindergarten as a regular part of the
public schools.
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.— NOVEMBER, 1893.— No. 3.
HOW SHALL THE PRIMARY SCHOOL BE
MODIFIED?
("What modifications in the primary school are necessary or desir-
able, in order to adapt it to continue the work of the kindergarten and
reap the advantages of the traming already received?" — Prepared for
the Department Congress of Kindergarten, Chicago, July 26, 1893.)
The most crying need of the primary school is the giv-
ing of an opportunity to the teachers to devote personal
attention to the scholars individually. This need is to be
met by confining the number of pupils under one teacher
within such limits that there may be time to devote the
needed attention to each scholar. It is recognized that one
kindergartner cannot properly take care of more than
twenty-five children, and it would be better if she had not
more than eighteen or twenty. It is widely recognized also
that fifty or sixty children are too many to be cared for
properly by one primary teacher, and that she could do
much better with one-half of that number.
In placing the employment of more teachers first, as a
modification needed in the conduct of primary schools, I do
not forget that quality is needed more than quantity. But
I believe that the quality needed will come largely through
the quantity. At present the teachers cannot act to the
extent of their native ability, because overburdened with a
mass of work. If their work be lessened in quantity, or if —
in better words — the same amount of work can be directed
into fewer, more diversified, and more appropriate channels,
the quality will be greatly improved. The teacher can do
for each child more nearly what the child needs to have
l68 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
done for it. One of the important elements in the excel-
lence of kindergartens is the ability of the kindergartner to
give to each child the individual attention he needs.
While I believe that the present teachers are capable, in
great measure, of much better work than they are given an
opportunity to perform, I believe the qualifications of teach-
ers are capable of great improvement. The kindergarten
method is more than a practice; it is a philosophy. The
discovery of Froebel is an epoch-making discovery, and yet
it is simplicity itself. It is but the recognition and the em-
bodiment of the processes of nature. In order to realize its
significance, its embodiment in practice must be observed.
The primary school teacher, therefore, should have been a
kindergartner, that she may know how to continue the work
of the kindergarten.
The greatest value of the kindergarten rests in the power
it has to develop the higher and nobler side of individual
character and ability. This power comes from the con-
formity of the kindergarten practice to the methods of na-
ture.
Conformity to nature is more and more recognized every
day to be the path of wisdom and of right.
The day is not yet past in which the nature of man is
considered by some persons to be corrupt, and the natural
tendencies of man to be wrong; but a brighter and truer
faith in human nature and its Creator is dawning, and the
school curriculum, as well as other practices, should be
made to conform to our higher light.
If the kindergarten practice conforms to the method of
nature, it should be continued so long as the conformity
continues. As the child grows, his needs and abilities grow;
but all growth is by degrees and not by leaps; so the transi-
tion from the kindergarten to the school should be gradual.
In conforming to the processes of nature the kindergar-
ten gives to the child those things to be done which the
child wants to do. The needs of the child find expression
in his impulses. The child in the kindergarten learns and
grows as he plays. He grows physically, mentally, and
HOW MODIFY THE PRIMARY SCHOOL? 169
morally, while he plays spontaneously. His play is at the
same time serious work, but it is not labor. It is good for
him. It is healthful.
Will anyone say that a change comes over the child sud-
denly, when he reaches a certain age, so that after that age
it is no longer good for him to play as he learns? or that
suddenly he must be snatched from the kindergarten, where
at the same time he does what he wants to do and does
what the kindergartner wants him to do, and must be placed
in a school where he must do as the teacher wants him to
do whether he wants to do so or not? This would not be in
conformity to the processes of nature; for as his nature has
not changed suddenly, the processes to which he is sub-
jected should not be changed suddenly.
After the child leaves the school his development does
not stop. If he has a fondness for business, for medicine,
for art, lor science, he pursues those vocations, or studies,
diligently and — as those who do not sympathize with his
tastes -might say — laboriously; but he pursues them for
pleasure. His work is play.
Is there, then, an intermediate time in his life, when
work is not or should not be pla\'? I believe there is no
time when it should not be play.
Reduced to a general statement, therefore, the primary
school curriculum, as well as that of the later schools,
should be so modified that the children should not be called
upon to do what they do not want to do. Their schooling
should be play, and not labor. It should be work, and not
drudgery. The art of pedagogy should be that which will
adapt the supply of the needs of the child to the natural
desires and disposition of the child. This necessitates the
adaptation of the method to the individual, and the compe-
tency of the teacher to her task, and the liberty of action of
the teacher in the execution of her task.
The fault of all schooling has been, and still is, for the
most part, that the schooling has not been carried on for its
own sake. Secondary motives have been substituted for
primary ones, as inducements to continue in school. The
170 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
children of a well-educated kindergartner are impatient to
be in the kindergarten. They plead with their mothers not
to let sickness or bad weather keep them from attendance,
and they are sorry when they must go home, and say they
"wish the kindergarten could keep all the time." Is it
usually so with the school? There may be teachers who so
keep school, but such is not the rule. It is not always, if
generally, the fault of the teachers that such schools are
not more numerous. It is in most cases because the teach-
ers are driven to force upon their scholars tasks for which
the scholars are not ready.
The occupations of the kindergarten should be continued
into the school, until by gradual development the transition
has been made from the kindergarten work to the school
work.
The essential modification needed in primary teaching
is not the addition of one or the elimination of another sub-
ject of study. It is not the change, in any general way, of
the methods of teaching, although these, especially in teach-
ing to read, are capable of great improvement in most
schools. It is the waiting until the child is ready to take
hold of specific kinds of work before giving him this work
to do. Meanwhile his education should be conducted upon
the lines and according to the methods already found suited
to his nature, so that he may enjoy going to school, and
shall develop in the needed directions while feeling that he
is but playing.
What are the daily and nightly labors of the physician
who loves his profession, but play? What is the reformer
doing when he buffets against the waves of popular opposi-
tion, and mayhap suffers obloquy or death in behalf of his
beloved cause, but playing? Play is but the gratification of
desire to accomplish certain work; and all human activity
will become play and a delight when it is adjusted to na-
ture.
The faults bf our schools are largely the faults of our
national life. There is too much hurry. Because children
can be made to read at five or six years of age they are
HOW MODIFY THE PRIMARY SCHOOL? I /I
driven to learn to read at that age, when they do not natu-
rally develop to the stage at which learning to read is their
need, until they are seven or eight years old. When they
should be filling their minds with observation of nature they
are driven to the acquisition of second-hand knowledge,
which they are not competent to digest.
When Agassiz had his first class of students at his mu-
seum in Cambridge, he set before each student a pile of
shells or a collection of fishes, or some other subject of
study, and told them to find out what they could about
them by observation. He did not give them text-books to
read, with ready-made classifications, but set them to classi-
fying for themselves. Their observation might be inade-
quate, their classifications might be crude; but whatever the
immediate, practical outcome of the study, the habit was
formed to see for oneself and to think for oneself. Each of
these students became a distinguished naturalist.
We know that some children have a natural fondness for
numbers and measures — let us say for mathematics — from
an early age; some children have an equal fondness for
stories, not only for what they are about, but for the way in
which they are told — let us say for history and literature;
others for form and color and their representations — let us
say for art and architecture. Such children do not need to
be driven, but only to be led, in the direction in which they
tend to go.
If we are justified in our attempts to teach mathematics
to those who do not naturally or at the outset love mathe-
matics, to teach history and a familiarity with literature to
those who have no first taste for these studies, it is because
we recognize or at least believe that the germs of love for
these studies exist in every soul. If such germs exist, why
should we not develop them naturally? Would we make a
bean plant grow by seizing its stem and pulling it until it
reached the desired length, or would we supply its roots
with nourishment and its leaves with sunlight, and trust to
the power within for the rest?
That our unnatural, unsympathetic method of schooling
1/2
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
has not worse results than we observe, is due to inherent
power of the soul to resist distortion. The forces of nature
prevail as it is, to a great degree, over the artificial inter-
ferences of unnatural systems of instruction.
The function of the teacher is to lead, and not to drive.
Those only should be teachers who can lead.
Let us double or treble the numbers of our primary
school teachers. Let us secure the best teachers for the
youngest scholars, and promote teachers from the older to
the younger classes. Let us give freedom to the natural
teacher to carry out her own ideas, not aiming to run the
schools as machines, at the minimum of cost and the maxi-
mum of gross material ground out of them.
Then we may safely leave it to the practical teachers
themselves to follow such methods as shall continue the
work of the kindergarten in the schools, and reap the ad-
vantages of the training already renewed.
B. PicKMAN Mann.
Washington, D. C.
THE RELATION OF THE KINDERGARTEN TO
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
IN the catechism which formed the basis of the religious
training of our Christian forefathers, the first question
is: "What is the chief end of man?" And the answer
— "The chief end of man is to serve God and to glo-
rify him forever." In stating the purpose of his scheme of
education, Froebel employs very similar terms: "To know
God is the chief end of all knowledge and the beginning of
knowledge." The Sunday school holds as its ideal the real-
ization of the divine" in the human, the seeking after God;
and the kindergarten has no higher reason for being, than
to bring the children, nurtured within its walls, to this be-
ginning of knowledge.
So we find these two institutions for child culture reach-
ing toward the same ultimate end. The means employed
will vary, but the principles must be the same; for child
nature is not put off when the Sunday gown is put on.
"The phenomena of nature," according to Froebel, "form
the ladder from earth to heaven."
The office of the kindergarten is to place the little feet
on the lowest round of this ladder, that the human being
may climb ever higher and higher toward the heavenly. In
order to climb, the child must learn to use hands and eyes
and ears. He must gain power. He must instruct himself
from the pages of the storybook which the Father has writ-
ten for the children of earth.
This book of nature is the only text-book of the kinder-
garten. "The heavens declare the glory of God!" sang the
shepherd bard of Israel. From the beginning man has
spelled the name of God in the star letters of the heavens.
He has heard him speak in the thunders from many a
mount, or in the whisperings of the wind. The flower from
the crannied wall, the leaf and the rock, written over with
174 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the hieroglyphics of the Creator, are the living preachers to
the children of the race everywhere. These the kindergart-
ner brings to the child-garden. She strives to find "tongues
in the trees, sermons in stones, and good in everything."
But we recognize another revelation of the divine. "The
law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul," sang the
same sweet singer of Israel, who had seen the hand of the
Creator in the glory of the heavens. Man lives not by
bread alone, not only in the life of nature, but among men.
Some more perfect guide to the relationships of man with
men was necessary, — a more definite moral code. The
"word" was needed, to give completeness and assurance to
what man dimly discerned from the voices of nature. While
the kindergartner finds her lessons on the pages of the first
book given to man, the Sunday-school' teacher makes pre-
eminent that other book, which we name the Word of God.
To show that these two books do not contradict each other,
but that one interprets the other, is the mission of the Sun-
day school.
In the kindergarten the child learns the virtues of self-
control, self-denial, helpfulness, and generosity, by their
continued practice. In the Sunday school he has presented
to him an ideal for all his moral activities, in the life of the
boy and man who went about doing good.
The Sunday school does not need to borrow the name,
nor the tables, nor blocks, nor any of the material of the
kindergarten, but rather its spirit and method of presenting
truth. The thing must come before the word, the idea be-
fore its formulation, the invisible through the visible, the
abstract through the concrete; these are the fundamental
principles of the kindergarten practice. When the Sunday
school accepts these with the Froebelian idea of growth, it
has received its best gift from the kindergarten. If the
kindergarten could be put into one word, it would be this
one: growth. Think of all that it implies! Does it not in-
volve the idea of gradual, orderly, and continuous develop-
ment? It necessitates the adaptation of instruction to the
stage of development where the child is found; for the hu-
KINDERGARTEN AND SUNDAY SCHOOL. I 75
man mind, like any other organism, requires right condi-
tions, which will vary at different stages, for its complete
unfolding. There must be progression, then, orderly and
continuous, in the teachings given. A lesson system which
considers this idea of continuous growth cannot be uniform,
for the child must think and understand and speak as a
child, not as an adult.
The birds, the lilies, the grass, the vine, were the themes
for the teaching of the great Teacher who spake as never
man spake before. To his simple peasant followers he gave
the most abstract of all conceptions, clothed in the concrete
form. To the woman by the well, weary and thirsty, he
gives through the sparkling water which she may see, the
thought of the unseen fountains of life. He translates, for
her, earthly terms into heavenly. The mountain at which
her fathers worshiped, the temple at Jerusalem, are real
and tangible. She can understand these, and through these
external symbols of a divine presence, her mind is led to
faintly comprehend that the outward is only a form for
spirit and truth.
The child of today likewise is to be led in his progress
toward the spiritual and invisible, by the concrete and the
visible. The Sunday school, like the kindergarten, may
use all visible things as emblems and as interpreters of the
Word. It may bring to the child those truths "whereon
our lives do rest," in this symbolic fashion. "If a man die
shall he live again?" is a question which still most deeph^
concerns the human heart, as it did the man of Uz, so long
ago.
The ancient Greek found his answer in the yearly resur-
rection of nature, and embodied it in a story which is im-
mortal. "The restoration of Persephone from the darkness
of Hades to the light, is an answer given from the heart of
man, an assurance that death is no more the end of life
than is winter the end of the flowers that sleep under its
snows." In the seed and the bulb, falling into the ground
to die, only to live again in a fairer form, we find for the
child the beginning of his Easter story. Nature's parable
1/6 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of life from death helps him to comprehend the story of
the resurrection. Will a child whose eyes have been
opened to see the wonderful clothing, every spring, of the
barren earth, find it difiicult to conceive of the multitude in
white robes who live still?
To help a child to look upon a crawling caterpillar as
holding the promise of a beautiful winged creature, is to
lead him toward the realization of the meaning of the
words, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above." Without some such symbol, the text is
meaningless.
In his book of "Mother-Play," Froebel shows how some
of the most abstract truths may be felt by the child through
the visible representation. "To give a child a truth too
early, in words," says Rousseau, "is to plant seeds of vice
in a pure mind." But the truth may be given symbolically,
long before it can be formulated by the understanding.
The clear stream in which the fish live and move freely,
may become a continual gospel for the child, and proclaim
to him, as it flows, that in Him we live and move and have
our being. The broken window pane, which the little one
tries in vain to repair by himself, explains how it is that
only the pure in heart see God, who is the light of the
world.
The Sunday-school teacher, like the kindergartner, needs
to be trained in Froebel's method of interpreting the sym-
bolic language of all outward things. The book itself,
which she teaches, abounds in suggestions for the right sort
of lessons. From the first announcement of light to the
world, in Genesis, to the vision of the city of light- in Reve-
lation, it is full of types and symbols. That the beginning
and the end of knowledge is to know God in his world is its
constant theme; "for the invisible things of Him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made." Lucy Wheelock.
Chajincy Hall, Bostofi.
A HISTORY OF THE TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM.
THERE has been among educators, for some time
past, a desire to have a method of teaching sing-
ing which will produce such results as shall com-
pare favorably with those obtained in other de-
partments of science and art. This desire is especially
commendable on the part of kindergartners, because of the
importance in their work of music, both vocal and instru-
mental.
The years passed in the nursery and in the kindergarten
comprise the most essential period of life, and all that the
child learns during that time is of paramount importance
for the future. Viewing the subject from this standpoint,
instructors of the young should, for the accomplishment of
their purpose, employ those methods in their work which
will give to their pupils a thorough understanding of the
subjects taught, and the ability to make the knowledge ac-
quired practical.
In teaching singing, that method should be considered
the best which regards the subject as of first importance
and its signs or notation as subordinate, giving only as
much of the latter as is necessary for the present stage of
development.
We are told that the first thing which should be taught
in music is key relationship. The pitch of a musical sound
may be regarded as absolute and also as relative; absolute
when viewed independently of other musical sounds, and
relative when taken in connection with a governing or key
tone. Mode in music is that which gives to each tone of
the scale a particular importance which makes of the key
tone a tonic, etc. It is the importance attached to key re-
lationship— i. e., the connection between each tone of the
scale and the tonic — which has given to the Tonic Sol-fa
method its name as distinct from other sol-fa methods.
This method is also called the system of the "movable
178 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
do," because the key tone, regardless of pitch, is always do.
If, as Dr. Lowell Mason says, we use the syllables at all,
we should have the do "immovably" fixed to the key tone;
nevertheless this method is included among the "movable
do" systems.
To be able to sing at sight is considered necessary for
singers. At one time the ability to do this was regarded as
part of the education of a gentleman; but for various rea-
sons music, so to speak, has been misused,- and at the pres-
ent time comparatively few are able to read music intelli-
gently.
It remained for Miss Glover, of Norwich, England, to
invent, and for Mr. John Curwen, also a native of England,
to improve and complete, a method of teaching to sing, at
once simple and easy to learn, which has for its prime ob-
ject the teaching of music itself, called the "Tonic Sol-fa
Method of Teaching to Sing." In this method the sol-fa
syllables are used, but the manner of spelling has been
changed, so that instead of the old familiar Italian ''do,, re,
mi, fa, sol, la, si," we have "Doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, te."
The first letter of the last syllable is altered to "t," so that
two of the syllables shall not have the same initial letter.
This is done for facility in writing, when only the initial let-
ters of the syllables are used.
In order to preserve musical thoughts it is necessary to
have a notation; and it is obvious, that to be simple, and
therefore more natural, a method which uses only what is
required for the stage which is being taught, has a great
advantage over one which requires an abundance of signs
at the start, thus burdening the mind with unnecessary
things and consigning to a subordinate place the real thing
to be taught, which in this case is music.
A reference just here to the early history of the Tonic
Sol-fa method will be appropriate.
In the summer of 1891 was celebrated in England the
jubilee of the Tonic Sol-fa system, it being then just fifty
years (1841) since John Curwen, a young Congregational
minister, was solemnly charged by the Rev. T. Stratten, at
HISTORY OF TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM. 1 79
a conference of Sunday-school teachers at Hull, "to find
out the simplest way of teaching music, and get it into use."
Mr. Curwen had always been interested in the education
of children, and some years previous to 1841 he taught a
number of children under his charge to sing. Having no
natural aptitude for music, he was obliged first to learn the
songs which afterwards, with the assistance of a friend, he
taught to the children. In order to give a certain amount
of stability to their work they endeavored to impart a
knowledge of the signs of the notation then in use, —
crotchets, quavers, sharps, flats, etc.
For a time the results were encouraging; for they learned
that the children, instead of quarreling and doing other
things which were not commendable at their play, were
heard to sing the songs they had been taught. Their teach-
ers, however, were conscious that the knowledge of music
gained did not extend beyond these songs. Mr. Curwen
regarded it as pretty, but not as educational.
The height of his musical ambition at this time was to
be able to "make out" from notes the songs he would
know. With this object in view he sought the instruction
of a teacher, who, as he relates himself, "drummed much
practice into me, but no independent power." In learning
intervals he was constantly stumbling, and longed for some
plan by which he might detect the small intervals, which
troubled him most. About this time a book was loaned
to him which described Miss Glover's system of teaching
music. At the first reading he threw the book aside, ex-
claiming that it made music more puzzling than ever; but
subsequently he read it with interest, and taught himself
and a little child who lived in the same house, to sing with
great success, being enabled to sing at sight — which was
what he had desired to do for so long a time — in a fort-
night. He discovered that the old methods of teaching had
presented to him only the shell, not the kernel of musical
knowledge. He now understood that the thing itself was
very different from its names and signs. He could also
fully appreciate that in her teaching Miss Glover taught,
l80 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
first, music, and then its notation, as soon as that which was
taught had been mastered. He discovered that her method,
more than other methods, was based on the principles of
science; that it was the simplest, the easiest to teach, and
the easiest to learn — consequently, the least artificial.
Following up the pleasure derived from the impressions
thus received, a visit to the school under Miss Glover's
patronage, at Norwich, confirmed them. Among other
points of excellence in the singing of the children assem-
bled there, he noted particularly the accuracy of tone; that
throughout a long tune the voices did not fall in pitch.
It was after his visit to Norwich that he received the
commission from the Sunday-school conference. He re-
garded the charge as sacred, and did not hesitate to bestow
upon it much time in earnest study and practice. The ces-
sation, for a season, of other duties, gave him leisure to test
the method by teaching both children and adults, and to
promote its use. At the conference, Mr. Curwen, after
what he had witnessed in Miss Glover's school, felt justified
in stating that an art which the holy Scriptures record as
being demanded of all, must be simple and easy of attain-
ment, if one did but understand the way, instead of being
complex and difficult to learn. Therefore it was agreed
that the method must be easy, true, and cheap, to meet the
needs of the people intellectually, spiritually, and finan-
cially.
Mr. Curwen modified the mode of writing which Miss
Glover had used, in several ways to meet these needs.
First he substituted the small letters for the capitals, to
save space and time; then changed some of the marks and
signs used, because others were more available among print-
ers. But the change which was welcomed by many teachers
as most advantageous was the plan which Mr. Curwen
adopted for measuring time by placing the accent marks at
equal distances from one another. All of the changes noted
above gave greater facility in writing, and the last caused
the introduction of the sol-fa music paper and blackboard,
on both of which the accent marks were printed or painted
HISTORY OF TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM. l8l
at equal distances ready for use, for what Mr. Curwen has
styled "musical shorthand." Thus, by means of the sol-fa
music paper, many pieces, taken from expensive works
quite beyond the reach of numbers of the pupils, were
made available, and this paper was gladly welcomed by the
pupils. Teachers themselves were also enabled to have a
larger and more suitable collection of tunes. Another
change was the establishing of a closer relationship with
the old notation, by retaining the old names of the pitch
notes, — the first seven letters of the alphabet, — which made
ihe transition into the old notation much easier.
We will now mention the principal points of the Tonic
Sol-fa method which distinguish it from all other methods
of teaching music. In this method the scale is thrown into
prominence, and absolute pitch into the background. Miss
Glover forbade her pupils even to think of absolute pitch.
The sol-fa letters are used as an auxiliary to the staff, and
also to form an independent notation. These were the two
points in Miss Glover's method which most delighted Mr.
Curwen, and he used them in building up his own method.
For very many years the sol-fa syllables or their initials
had been placed against the notes of the staff, to aid begin-
ners; but Miss Glover believed that they alone were suffi-
cient, and Mr. Curwen adopted her theory.
It was to these ideas rather than to details that Mr. Cur-
wen was indebted to Miss Glover. Although we are told
that Miss Glover did not consider Mr. Curwen's develop-
ment of her plans an improvement, but ever expressed a
good-humored disbelief in them, they remained friends, and
the spirit of unselfishness and good-will manifested by each
of them is worthy of imitation.
That which we owe to Mr. Curwen alone is the theory
of the mental effect of tones; i. e., that in singing we do not
calculate the distance of one tone from another, but that a
consciousness of the independent, definite character which
each tone possesses, when sung in relation to the governing
or key tone, is impressed on the mind, and compels it to
recognize each tone as soon as it is heard.
152 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE. ■
This idea of the mental effect or character of tones is
that which when once thoroughly grasped will give to the
Tonic Sol-fa student. a power in the realm of musical sound
which makes him an independent reader of any musical
notation. To this end the sol-fa teacher spends much time
in training the ear to recognize tones not only consecu-
tively, but simultaneously; as melody and as harmony.
In teaching the musical scale by this method, the tones
are not given in step-wise order, but by chords; which
means that the pupil is led to associate the tones which are
concordant, and not those which are discordant. In this
way he will learn to tune his voice correctly and to keep
the pitch. In part-singing this is very necessary, and is an
invaluable aid to all students of music. Thus will the pu-
pils learn to thiiik musically, as well as to sing ?misically.
In the matter of time or rhythm, that subtile universal
essence of all movement, the Tonic Sol-fa pupil acquires a
precision which becomes habitual, and which will carry him
safely through all the divisions and combinations of mu-
sical measure.
We are told that the greatest things are the simplest.
Tonic Sol-faists claim for their method that its chief charm
is simplicity. We feel constrained to say that had Fried-
rich Froebel, the father of the kindergarten, and John Cur-
wen, the father of "Tonic" Sol-fa, worked together, each
would have been delighted with the other's work; because
both labored for little children, and each fully appreciated
that what was done for them must be founded on simplic-
ity. The one said, "Come, let us with our children live."
The other said, "My object is to make the people of this
country, and their children, sing, and to make them sing
for noble ends." Emma A. Lord.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
CULTURE, CHARACTER, AND CONDUCT.
(The following eloquent paragraphs are culled from various public
addresses made during the past summer by Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, of
California, They are here preserved as valuable campaign argu-
ments for the use of kindergartners when compelled to meet the same
questions.)
The science of the unfoldment of a human being is the
grandest science to which the mind of man ever devoted
itself. The art of developing true manhood and woman-
hood is the noblest art that ever challenged human thought
and investigation. Therefore it is, that true educators are
the kings and queens of this world; and just so long as
Brain is master and owner of this universe, they will con-
tinue to be the supreme potentates of earth. It is grand to
be an artist in marble. It is grander still to be a fashioner
of men. And I rejoice, dear friends, that the regnant aim
of kindergarten training is heart culture. We want that
sort of education which has in it more of the element of
character building. The end of all culture must be charac-
ter, and its outcome in conduct.
"Conduct," says Matthew Arnold, "is three-fourths of
life." When our fathers would conserve liberty for their
children and mankind, they "fed the lambs"; they looked
to the proper training of the young. We have a vast num-
.ber of humane institutions for the reclamation and recovery
of the wayward and the erring. We have reformatory insti-
tutions, prisons, jails, and houses of correction; but all of
these are only repair shops. Their work is secondary, not
primal. It is vastly more economical to build new houses,
than to overhaul and remodel old ones.
Virtue, integrity, and well-doing are not sufficiently
aimed at in earliest childhood. And yet right action is far
more important than rare scholarship. The foundation of
national prosperity and perpetuity is laid deep down in the
bed rock of individual character. Let the plodding, the
Vol. 6-12
I»4 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
thriftless, and the unaspiring of any country have the mo-
nopoly of peopling that country, and the race will become
gradually deteriorated, until finally the whole social fabric
gives way, and the nation reverts back to barbarism or is
blotted from the earth. Ignorance and lack of character in
the masses will never breed wisdom, so long as ignorance
and lack of character in the individual breed folly.
"The most delicate, the most difficult, and the most im-
portant part of the training of children," says Friedrich
Froebel, the founder of kindergarten, "consists in the de-
velopment of their inner and higher life of feeling and of
soul, from which springs all that is highest and holiest in
the life of men and of mankind, — in short, the religious life,
the life that is at one with God, in feeling, in thought, and
in action. What, then," he asks, "must education do? It
must proceed as gently and gradually as possible, and in
this respect, as with all other kinds of development, work
first only through general influences."
Some kind of moral education is inevitable. It is im-
possible to send the intellect of a child to school, and keep
the heart at home. You cannot send one part of the nature
without sending the whole. Nay, more, you cannot touch
one chord of our curious nature, that the others do not
vibrate. There is no such thing as educating one part of
the nature, and leaving the rest at a standstill.
Froebel laid great emphasis upon the personality of the
teacher. "It is the man or woman that makes the impres-
sion on the child, and not the marks upon the blackboard."
It was Thomas Arnold who made the school at Rugby.
I believe, with that eminent authority on educational affairs
— Dr. Mayo — that no one is fit to become a teacher of little
children who has not a deep, patient, enthusiastic love,
founded on a religious faith in their spiritual nature as chil-
dren of God, their moral obligation to God and man, and
the mighty issues, private and public, involved in their com-
ing life.
You cannot, says Froebel, do heroic deeds in words, or
by talking about them; but you can educate a child to self-
CULTURE, CHARACTER, AND CONDUCT. I 85
activity and to well-doing, and through these to a faith
which will not be dead. The kindergarten child is taught
to manifest his love in deeds rather than words. A child
thus taught never knows lip service, but is led forward to
that higher form of service, where their good works glorify
the Father, thus proving Froebel's assertion to be true,
where he says: "I have based my education on religion,
and it must lead to religion."
Character building in the kindergarten goes forward by
means of personal activity in an atmosphere of happiness
and contentment. Froebel insisted that education and hap-
piness should be wedded; that there should be as much
pleasure in satisfying intellectual and spiritual hunger as
physical hunger. And should not this be so? Is it not
more or less the fault of methods, when school and misery
are closely allied in the thought of the little child? Does
it not, as a rule, argue some radical defect in the personal-
ity of the teacher, when little children hate the schoolroom?
The kindergarten child must learn to help himself. He
must be taught self-reliance. The simple fact of the matter
is, all helps that smother self-help are bad. The help of
others should be to us what phosphates are to the soil;
they should not be tlic timig grozv/i, but they should stimu-
late the growth of the desired thing in us. The work of the
teacher is to stimulate, not to supersede. The finding out
is the educating power. Only paralytics should be carried.
The design of all education is to make men and women to
be the sovereigns of their own faculties, the popes of their
own senses.
THE KINDERGARTEN AT THE COLUMBIAN
EXPOSITION.
THE so-called educational exhibit in the Manufac-
tures Building stands for the greatest compilation
of school methods, materials, and records that
has ever been massed together. Who shall say,
however, that the entire Exposition is not one vast and
varied educational exhibit? The cutting of many-facet dia-
monds in the Mining Building, or the majestic colonnade
of fragrant tree trunks about the Forestry Building, the
composite of races on the Midway Plaisance, — yes, even the
tiniest sea-urchin while lazily stretching its arms in the
marine department of the Fisheries, — all these are as emi-
nently educational as the profoundest tomes of foreign uni-
versity or bound volumes of public school examination
papers. Let us rather call the exhibit in the gallery of the
Manufactures Building the exhibit of the schools.
Every state and national building is an object lesson of
history, geography, and political economy, a text-book of
unlimited resource to such as have eyes to read the story
of universal mankind in every individual man's efforts and
accomplishments. Horticultural Hall is nature's veritable
gazetteer, teaching, first and foremost, the wonder lesson of
her unmeasured profusion of beauty and variety. The
effects of this vast educational exposition will be felt far
down the school years to come, and will permeate and up-
lift every schoolroom in the land, working on unto right-
eousness.
The school exhibit does credit to every department of
pedagogy, from the kindergarten to the university. We
dare say that it does not express the ideals of the modern
school men, nor present an adequate illustration of the great
and good intentions of the average school commissioner or
teacher. But this much it does stand for: that result which
is ever being aggregated by the law of balance between the
KINDERGARTEN AT THE EXPOSITION. 187
extreme ideal and the possible application of that ideal to
environment.
The kindergarten is generously sprinkled in among the
more formal but often less attractive exhibits. Thirty-
two states of our Union have systematic and extensive
exhibits, tracing their school work up from the primary
grade. Many of these show how strongly the kindergarten
methods have influenced the lower grades. In every case
where there are public school kindergartens to exhibit, it is
done with a certain pride of being progressive which can-
not be misunderstood. The following are among the more
conspicuous cities which exhibit public kindergarten work:
Des Moines and Clinton, la.; Lexington and Louisville,
Ky.; Boston, Mass.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Minneapolis and
St. Paul, Minn.; St. Louis, Mo.; Rochester, Albany, and
Buffalo, N. Y.; Columbus, O.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Philadel-
phia, Pa.; Indianapolis and La Porte, Ind.
The more progressive state normal training schools show
well-organized kindergarten departments. At Greeley,
Colo., the teachers are prepared for the public kindergar-
tens which that state provides; the Albany (N. Y.) normal
school conducts a training school and a model kindergarten;
the state normal at Madison, S. Dak., gives all its primary
teachers a kindergarten course, and we find that the primary
grades are permeated with the occupation work. Cedar
Falls (la.) normal school has its full-fledged kindergarten
department; also that of Emporia, Kan., and Cook County
Normal School, Illinois. There are others also, but these
are among those we noted in passing through the exhibit.
The rural schools of Utah, North Dakota, Nebraska, Michi-
gan, Kansas, and parts of other states, boast of public kin-
dergartens, while Oregon and Ohio are among the states
which have recently legislated optional public kindergar-
tens.
The Indiana state exhibit, under the direction of Mr. W.
N. Hailmann, has a most practical display of the kindergar-
ten applied to grade work.
The private training schools which display most charac-
l88 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE. •
teristic work are those of Mrs. Eudora Hailmann, of Indi-
ana; the National Kindergarten Normal of Mrs. Pollock,
Washington, D. C; the Chicago Kindergarten College and
the Chicago Free Kindergarten Association; and the Louis-
ville Free Kindergarten Association.
The composite exhibit of twenty-five deaf-mute insti-
tutes reveals, the extent to which color, form, and nature
studies have been adopted as means of making the mute to
speak, while both blind and feeble-minded institutions show
the principle — handiwork — practically applied with their
youngest children.
Several private schools and institutions — such as Pratt,
Working-men's School of New York city, Jewish Manual
Training School of Chicago — show systematic kindergarten
work. The large Catholic exhibit is sprinkled throughout
with the hand work peculiar to the kindergarten system.
There are four powerful exhibits which are not in the
galleries reserved for the schools; one is that of the Cook
County Normal School, in the Children's Building, which
shows the kindergarten as applied to every grade, not ex-
cluding the normal training of teachers. Another is that of
the California Mission Kindergartens, which line the gallery
of the California Building. Again, the school work of the
state of Illinois is found in the state home, where the ex-
hibit of the Chicago public schools is recorded as attracting
more visitors than that of any other one city. The fourth
exhibit, which stands by itself in the northeast gallery of
the Manufactures Building, is that of the Pestalozzi-Froebel
Haus of Berlin. The Froebel Verein of Berlin, also the
Kindergarten schools of Eisenach and Breslau, have their
exhibits, largely in reports and pamphlets, included in the
German educational exhibit.
The French mission exhibits include the public nurseries,
which correspond in some degree to our kindergartens,
though scarcely on such an educational basis.
Canada has contributed a goodly display of public
school kindergartens, including the Union School exhibit of
Nova Scotia.
KINDERGARTEN AT THE EXPOSITION. 1 89
The territory of New Mexico has evidence of kindergar-
ten primary work, under the direction of the sisters of
charity, who constitute the main teachers of the territory.
New South Wales has record of public kindergartens in
Sydney; also Uruguay and the Argentine Republic have
exhibits of government kindergartens. In the Russian
book exhibit we find a volume on the methods of Froebel,
by Roffkovskay of St. Petersburg, also several cases of chil-
dren's hand work. The printed reports of Finland and
Denmark mention well-organized kindergartens under pub-
lic direction.
The Japanese exhibit of the government schools dis-
closed the remarkable fact of over five hundred government
kindergartens, accommodating 13,809 children, all under
the direction of Japanese kindergartners regularly trained
for this work. It is not for us to say whether these children
schools are according to our standard of good work or not.
The government educators of that country have investigated
the Froebel method themselves, and we must accept their
interpretation as measured by national judgments. In 1885
there were but fifty kindergartens; now there are ten times
that number. Text-books are supplied to the female train-
ing school at Tokyo, and the ethical, moral teaching is made
the substructure of their version of Froebelianism. The
expression used by our Japanese guide was this: We believe
much in fostering the moral virtues in the school. There
are also several mission kindergartens under the direction
of American mission schools, but these are not always ac-
ceptable to the native educators. The exhibit of hand work
in the government schools has much to do with the rice and
silk industries, and the materials are peculiar to the country,
as they should be. The records and statistics are most
complete, and show a growth in modern directions which is
not always granted the island Japonica.
All of these displays testify that the various exhibitors,
whether they be individuals, institutions, or nations, have
faith in the kindergarten system. They testify that the
most progressive sections have the most faith, and they also
igO THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
testify that by this faith the old man who has sat upon the
neck of our public schools is about to be thrown off, and
freedom to be secured.
However interesting the concrete exhibits of weaving
mats, bright paper foldings, and clay modelings may be,
they must by no means be considered the sum and sub-
stance of the kindergarten work. These are but the ex-
ternal signs, the values of which must ever be relative to
children and their native environments.
The school exhibit is by no means the only department
which has done honor to the kindergarten during the past
memorable summer. The active kindergartens in operation
— the one in the Children's Building, the other in the Illi-
nois State Building — have been teaching daily lessons of
this art applied. The kindergarten section of the educa-
tional congresses has carried forth the pedagogic discus-
sions to practical issue, while the literature and general
information which have been most generously circulated, the
thousands of questions which have been answered, and the
infinite wrong impressions which have been righted, all go
to make up a sum total which marks an epoch in educa-
tional history, since what adds to the spreading of the kin-
dergarten work affects the whole educational world. The
commingling of the workers from every city, state, and
nation has enlarged not only the information, but also the
brotherhood of kindergartners. The year 1893-4 will be a
Pentecostal year, I believe, for the thousands of little chil-
dren who in the end are to gather up the essence of all
these other great benefits. Amalie Hofer.
THE SCHOOLS -OF URUGUAY, SOUTH AMERICA.
THE Oriental Republic of Uruguay, South America,
has much to tell us of its educational ideals, and
brings with its national exhibit a careful state-
ment of what its people have done for the boys
and girls, as well as in teaching and training. They most
enthusiastically tell us that they have had their Horace
Joseph Peter Varela,
The Horace Mann of Urugiiay.
Mann, as well as the republic of the United States. Sefior
Joseph Peter Varela most certainly has been a reformer
with the true principle of education at heart, for out of the
movement set on foot by him as late as 1877 has come a
school system so entirely on the line of the Froebelian
method as to be amenable to all that is newest and best.
192 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The exhibit in the Agricultural Building at the World's
Fair is a complete statement, in substance, of the condition
of the Uruguay school. Large cases of beautiful photo-
graphs show the development of the schoolhouses from the
kindergarten to the pedagogical museum, with everything
in working order. Although the kindergarten has been
adapted but three years as a part of their public school
system, they have already begun, the manufacture of mate-
rials at the expense of the government. The hand work
shown will bear careful criticism in most parts. A case of
clay modeling done by the children themselves, consisting
of seventy pieces, carefully packed and brought to the
Columbian Exposition, proves the real appreciation they
have of the newer methods. There are fifty specimens
of hand work applied in the same practical form, also
numerous portfolios of weaving, paper folding, cutting, and
designing. Studies in color are limited entirely to inade-
quate color materials, in which considerable help is needed.
There are over seven hundred children in the kindergartens,
which is a good percentage when we realize that the entire
republic of Uruguay does not contain more than one-half
the number of the inhabitants of the city of Chicago. The
teachers for this special work were trained in Germany and
Belgium, sent over by ,the government, and have now
adapted their attainments to their national conditions and
the Spanish tongue, already training many of their native
sisters in the beautiful work of the kindergarten. The
general training schools are fast turning out teachers, the
great purpose being to reduce the number of children
under individual training.
The Uruguay school exhibit, near the center north door
of the Agricultural Building of the Exposition, has been
under the charge of the commissioner, Senor Alberto
Gomez-Ruano of Montevideo, with his interpreter. Sefior
Gomez-Ruano has made known the work and the hopes of
his country during the past season, both before the educa-
tional congress and the many individuals professionally
interested in the records of growth of these less accessible
THE SCHOOLS OF URUGUAY.
193
countries. There is a warm enthusiasm and receptiveness
about these Spanish-speaking peoples, which falls like
romance upon our clear-cut, ready-to-the-muzzle Ameri-
canism.
In a land where the government commissioner of educa-
tion is known and loved personally by every child in the
schools, who on the street is accompanied by their cordial
chatter, there must "be an element of naturalness which
Alberto Gomez-Ruano,
Commissioner of Education.
forestalls the so-called natural education. Mr. Gomez-
Ruano leaves with us a portfolio of illustrations of their
pedagogical museum,— of which he is director,— showing
the architecture, decorations, furnishings, and especially the
illustrations of the pedagogical sciences, in which are shown
methods, complete apparatus, and educational help, col-
lected from all parts of the world. He leaves a cordial
invitation to kindergartners and educators who have
not already seen this exhibit, to do so at this office. The
summer's intercourse between pedagogues of many tongues,
illustrating individual methods and all seeking for the
inspiration in each other's demonstrations, will weave an
international fraternity into the world's schoolrooms, which
will mark a new chapter in general history.
HOW FRIEDRICH FROEBEL INFLUENCED THE
CHARACTER OF GEORGE EBERS.
THE desire has frequently been expressed that we
might trace the actual results of the work of
Froebel in the life of his students, and so reach
some adequate estimate of this work's efficacy.
The Forum for August, 1893, brings such evidence in the
autobiographical sketch of George Ebers, in which he
states the influences which helped shape his character and
after-activity. We reprint the following paragraphs, as
they convey much of deep interest to educators:
In my novel, "Homo Sum," the anchorite Paulus says,
"the mother of every child is the best of mothers," — an
opinion I still hold today. Truly many injudicious and
headstrong women are blessed with children, in relation to
whom, however, they possess intuitive fostering powers
which make the most vicious appear good and the stu-
pidest wise; for the best mother-gift is derived rather from
an overflowing love than from any particular state of intel-
ligence, there being also a wisdom of the heart. Thus is
the mother herself reacted upon and ennobled. Like a
teacher earnestly instructing, many a fervent mother, even
though limited in her nature, develops into an excellent
educator; and among such my own mother was worthy to
be classed with the best, wisest, and most truly beautiful.
Over me she exercised a strong educational influence, oper-
ating together with that of another with whom I came in
contact later in life.
Few, I believe, individually appreciate the enormous
hidden force in educational, and moral influence exerted
upon them by their mothers. Were a college founded for
the propagation of morality, its professors would touch
only superficially the inner life of the students; it would
be, in fact, a superfluous institution; for life itself is just
such a school. We begin here like children, understanding
such instruction alone as appeals to the heart; and of this
every man's mother, like mine, holds the key. Compre-
hending this, a wise mother should therefore improve every
EBERS INFLUENCED BY FROEBEL. I95
occasion as a stimulus to an exercise in morality, teaching
even by the glance of her eye, as it appeals to the innate
love of her child; and this fundamental instruction will
take root as deeply as though the pupils were already
older, excluding superficiality, from the fact that she can
touch the soul to its innermost core. When one leaves the
motherly influence, one is already a moral man, or one is
not; and of a hundred who are so, ninety-nine, even though
unconsciously, are indebted to the mother. . . .
Friedrich Froebel, founder of the Kindergarten, once
kept a school in Kilhau, situated in a beautiful valley amid
the mountain forests of Thuringia, and thither in my boy-
hood I was sent. Froebel, in 181 3, had taken part in the
uprising of the German people against the Corsican con-
queror, and had more than once looked death in the -face
while serving in the volunteer corps of the " Schwarzen
Jager," celebrated by Theodore Korner in his poem "Liit-
zow's Wilde verwegene Jagd." After the declaration of
peace, he founded his Kilhau school and called on Lange-
thal and Middendorf, his whilom companions -in -arms, to
associate themselves with him here, all three electing to
abandon personal advancement in order thus again to serve
their country in that remote forest valley. Deep religious
idealists, as became the hour of a nation's spiritual expan-
sion, these men proposed to dedicate themselves to the
growing youth of the country, employing in their work the
steadfast natures discerned by Froebel amid the tramp and
turmoil of war. While Froebel had been for several years
prior to the war a scholar of Pestalozzi in Yverdun, Switzer-
land, he had at the same time assisted in the completion of
Pestalozzi's well-known system. The effort made by Froe-
bel with the youth confided to him was to form true men
by a harmonious development of both mind and body, not
on the usual lines of education, but through a complete
study of the individual, presuming that the richest endow-
ment for life within his gift lay in imparting a tenderness of
mind united to strength of character and body. Earnest
men and lovers of childhood, they used the simplest forms
of our daily life, at work or play, as opportunities for carry-
ing out their principles; even the miniature battles we
fought on summer evenings on the crest of some wooded
height were made to bear a moral; for an awakening of the
intelligence, preparatory to a higher instruction, weighed
more seriously under the Froebel' system than the success
of a mere prodigy of learning.
IQO THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
An institution conducted by such methods represented
solid educational force, although to ascribe to this tutelage
any special factor in my own development would be as
difficult as to define the sequence of each flaky crystal of
the falling snow. Nevertheless, I can still trace the endur-
ing mastery over me of that old champion of freedom,
Heinrich Langethal; for though he deserted Kilhau as
early as my sixteenth year, he coerced my tastes into a
path from which I have never swerved. A favorite pupil
of Schleiermacher and Friedrich August Wolf, the great
philologist and propounder of the " Homeric Question,"
Langethal attained an unusual scholastic acquaintance with
classic antiquity, joining the elect whom the goddess alone
permits to enter understandingly into the true spirit of
Grecian art. An affection of the eye, produced by camp-
ing on wet ground during the war, had culminated, when I
first knew him, in total blindness; but the eye of his soul
discerned with augmented force and in purer light the
pictures and forms so richly thronging his imagination.
He knew the whole of Homer accurately by rote, as is
attestable by living witnesses; and his interpretation of the
Iliad aroused within us a feeling that he too marched with
Achilles on the sanguinary field of battle, or was again at
home in the palace of Priam. When he elucidated the clas-
sics, the very spirit of antiquity emanated from him, and to
have read directly from the page, when required by the
blind rhapsodist to translate or recite, would have im-
pressed us as a shameful crime, like striking a fallen hero.
Using no precautionary rule against deception, he incul-
cated a respect for truth, impressing upon us that conscience
could inflict a more condign punishment than the severest
school penalty. When I left school, his epigrammatic part-
ing was, "Be veracious in love," a motto which has guided
me in life as the Polar Star guides the desert wanderer. . . .
Among the greatest educational powers are quietude
and introspective reflection, which in this progressive age,
that tends so strongly to association, are so difficult for all
to obtain. Later, when traveling across the desert, I
strongly realized my indebtedness to the enforced retire-
ment consequent on my long illness, and which, holding the
germ of my inclination, shaped it then into a firm resolu-
tion. The energy of health presented variegated inspira-
tions, which rose, like some lovely mermaid on the waters,
to disappear again as suddenly when I stretched out my
hand to detain them. But in that period of quiet I marked
EBERS INFLUEN'CED BY FROEBEL. IQ/
the first successful retaining of ideas crowding through my
brain, with the ability to force a thought to its extreme
limit. When traversing the silent desert, the same phe-
nomenon presented itself, and I now learned why the
prophets and law-givers of most nations passed into the
desert to find there the infinite quiet they sought. Thus
Sakya-Muni, the founder of Buddhism, Moses, Zoroaster,
and Mohammed conceived their high mission. But where
shall the growing youth of toda}' — God defend it from a
compulsory retirement like mine! — find such repose? . . .
In tracing the career of others who have done more
than I for human progress, the tendency to formulate the
best in solitude becomes apparent of each one. Goethe
found the quiet of early morning most favorable for com-
position; the teeming brains of the great physicist Helm-
holtz and the mathematician Gausz marked as most pro-
ductive the silent hours or walks abroad in sunn}^ weather;
the universe opened to Kant on solitary wanderings; and
the famous electrician, Werner Siemens, after being incar-
cerated in a fortress as punishment for a duel, declared
that it was with regret he regained his freedom from an
imprisonment in which work and thought had reaped
incredible benefit from solitude.
Sheep and geese become restless when separated from
the flock; the eagle and lion seek isolation. From quiet
and solitude spring the greatest thoughts, inventions, and
compositions of art; hence their potentiality in character
formation. I hold the theory that the child exerts on the
child, as the friction of life on man, the greatest educa-
tional influence, while our most valuable acquisition in the
time of our development through nature, art, and circum-
stance is the fruit of hours spent in quietude, desirable for
our growing youth and absolutely essential for our future
philosopher, poet, and artist. . . .
EDITORIAL NOTES.
During the summer educational congress one depart-
ment of this work was considered which should be of more
vital interest to all wide-awake school men and women. It
is this subject of educational journals. The congress ses-
sion devoted to this discussion was arranged by educa-
tional journalists and carried out by members of their own
circle. This method of handling the important subject was
interesting, valuable, and eminently suggestive. There is
another point of sight, however, by which to establish the
relative values of the educational journal. It is that of the
reader, — of the reader who consciously subscribes for the
journal of his choice. If a specialist periodical passes the
criticism of its fellow journals, should such be inclined to
be candid in their opinions, it does much. If it meets the
needs of its known audience, — not the daily, detailed ne-
cessity of any one individual, but the essential interests of
its group of readers, — it does more. The editor and pub-
lisher, however competent, reliable, idealistic, and business-
like, are but two factors in this trinity of journalism. The
reader must serve as regulator and inspirator. If the latter
has merely a passive interest, taking what is given without
protest or comment, the vital standard of any journal is
diminished.
Among the educational journalists whose monthly edi-
torials reveal the man in his words and works, we would
name the following: Mr. Henry Sabin, of the Iowa Schools,
formerly state superintendent of schools, and at present a
candidate for the same post; Mr. George P. Brown, of the
Bloomington (111.) Public School J oimial, whose reputation as
a pedagogue and philosopher has been secured through hon-
orable service; Mr. C. W. Bardeen, of the Syracuse School
B7dleti7i, who is traveler, litterateur, and historian combined
in one, and whose culture of mind is not above the service
of the common schoolmaster. Among the recent men
who are rising into prominence because of their ideals, and
EDITORIAL NOTES. IQQ
their fearlessness in voicing the same, we may note Mr. J. E.
Wells, of the Toronto Ediicatioiial Journal ; Mr. R. J. Guinn,
of the Atlanta Sotither?i Educatio?ial yonrnal ; and J. H. Mil-
ler, editor and publisher of the Northwest Joitr/tal of Educa-
tion, of Lincoln, Neb. These latter journals voice the hon-
est sentiments of the men behind them; not the \'agaries of
dreamers, but the substantial facts which they have doubt-
lessly proven in active lives. Their words are not always
rhetorically selected, but they bespeak a discrimination
which is bred of inner convictions and inevitable policies.
The motto of the great auxiliary congress of 1893 will
apply here as it does in so many other \'ital connections, —
viz.: "Men, not things; mind, not matter!"
A MARKED influence is felt from kindergarten training
schools which constantly indulge in the fresh currents of
thought received through special lecturers from outside
their own fold. Where the associations are not prepared
to provide these advantages, in many cases the students
themselves combine, and meet the expense themselves.
This is a certain sign of progressive work, and each
year these specialists who make rounds among the lesser
cities become more numerous, giving opportunities for spe-
cial lessons in color, general art, music, " mother-play," slojd,
form and clay, science, astronomy, piano. There is no longer
any excuse for a training school, calling itself such, which
does not each }'ear bring in the fresh ideas from the great
world of demonstration which is pressing around it.
Home and family papers no longer fill the bill by bring-
ing crochet patterns or recipes for codfish balls. Their
readers demand current events, even matters of religion,
education, and politics. The school journal which feeds its
audience with the set patterns of routine work will as cer-
tainly become a thing of the past. Teachers demand ideals,
and prefer them when the text is illuminated by the actual
character and life and strong individuality of the writer.
Even the journalist maist put himself into his work before he
can lead his teacher-readers to desire that individuality which
should radiate and infuse every detail of schoolroom life.
Vol 6-13
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's "MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. III.
The so-called teacher has as much to do with un-teach-
ing, with tearing down, as with building up. According to
accustomed school tenets, she has often to empty the child-
flask before she may refill it with the more approved wine
of better methods. If this is not feasible, and the child be
grown to adult, — that means, to one fixed in certain habits
of thought and knowledge, — then she must inject bit by
bit her better thought, and let that go on to do the work of
displacing the old with the new. This is nature's process,
by which all vacuum is avoided, since there is never a
moment during the process which admits of a void. Had
Columbus been dealing with little children, instead of
adults inured to the indisputable flatness of the earth, his
voyage eastward had been less the dream of a visionary.
When the inspirational desire to become a teacher — ein
Lehrer — first came to Friedrich Froebel, his ideal of such
a master was doubtless after the university pattern, — one
of those largely blessed men whose opportunities to infuse
the forming generation of young manhood with philosophy,
wisdom, and knowledge are golden beyond compare. But
step by step he worked backward. From the teaching of
young men he sought to work with boys, and finally little
children became the objects of his pedagogical research.
These in turn led him back from the Kinderschule to the
home, and he finally paused before the babe in its mother's
arms.
Here must begin the work of rational education; that
is, the right living, not of one creature by himself, but of
companions, one of whom stands ever to the other as the
supreme ideal of his soul. The mother and child represent
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 201
the relative value of the one individual to another, and the
relative growth of man — not afar on an enchanted or
desert isle, as the case may be, but in the presence of his
fellow men. The equilibrium of the individual can only be
found in his relationships; hence we find the opening-
chapters of this family book, as Froebel himself has named
it, devoted to the mother and her child.
This is the simplest, at the same time the highest rela-
tionship. As the sphere, in" the study of type forms, is the
unit of simplicity which admits modifications to an unlim-
ited extent, so here we have the typical relationship for our
consideration and study. The mother is not limited to
national or temporal qualities; she is a type of what
mothers may and should be. The child is not a thing of
temperament, environment, nor even of specialized phy-
sique, but the type of universal childhood, which is su-
premely 7iormal and sound.
When Froebel had reached this point in his conclusions,
he named the enviro}nnc)it which he believed consisted of
this typical relationship, the kindergarten; out of this, as
out of a type. form, might grow all the infinite modifications
which constitute life and living. It is unnecessary to dwell
here upon the sad misinterpretations of this inclusive title,
which have embodied themselves in poor "infant schools"
all about us. The author's meaning of this word can in no
wise be construed into "a sub-primary method," nor into a
system of step-by-step processes in which the steps are
controlled by the teacher instead of the relative growth of
mother and child.
When the teacher has taken upon herself the relation-
ship of mother, — and the term "relationship" implies a
blending of two or more, — all such attitudes as teacher,
instructor, tutor, controller, constrainer, and manipulator
fall away. For are there not two individuals here to be
considered? Is there not a mutual consideration, a growth
of the one, though many years older, dependent upon the
growth of the other? Instead of teacher, she becomes i7iter-
prcter. This is Froebel's thought of spiritual motherhood.
202 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
This is the law of spiritual individuality, which he places
as the corner stone of his ethics.
Is this child before me a spiritual or a material being?
Is he partly spiritual, partly material? Is he a thing of ab-
solute or accidental potentialities? Is he the result of mor-
tal or divine law? The type-mother in the first picture of
"Die Mutter und Kose-Lieder" (page 9, Lee & Shepard
edition) is looking upon her child, not in morbid brooding
nor in p-hlegmatic indifference, but in joy and inexpressible
gladness. Read the song; it is the initial, introductory
song to this book, which was the culmination (not the first
burst) of Froebel's experiments.
The mother is pictured in unity with her child, breathing
back poetry, music, deep religion to the babe in her arms,
who has inspired all this in her heart.
Is this mere sentiment? Let each student ask himself
the direct question whether all the great art, the music, the
poetry to which this relationship of mother to holy child
has led, is an external product. Could all this have ema-
nated if the child were a material offspring of a mortal law?
Froebel did not believe that motherhood was indifferent
to childhood. To him childbearing was no more physical
(in the sense of animal) than child training should be.
The following songs, in which the mother's "commun-
ing" with her babe in arms, as he grows on out of her
arms, trace the reflections, the feelings, the semi-conscious
thoughts of the sound, normal mother. These are not
empty sentimental musings, much less resentments over
either the added burden accrued by increasing responsi-
bilities, or regrets that her life is swallowed up in the petty
details of the nursery; for such mean negations there is no
room in the heart of natural motherhood. In these songs,
through these lines, Froebel seeks to interpret the true
mother nature to itself. This is not based on ignorance of
true mothers, but upon a devout knowledge which he accu-
mulated through a long experience in many families and
homes.
In a hymn of praise, the mother expresses her feelings
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 203
on beholding her first-born child. Husband, father,
mother, wife, child — all these relationships she gathers
together in one:
God and Father, life's eternal source!
Let purity and power attend his course!
Thy children we; one life, one love
Forever binds us below to thee above.
This is but another expression of the same truth which has
been voiced all down the Christian ages, and which has
recently been put into the following eloquent sentence:
"It is our privilege at this Supreme moment to declare that
man is, not ivill be, spiritual."
Again the mother looks upon her child; her overfull
eyes trace the perfected beauty of limb and feature, and
mark the life signs which permeate his whole being. She
foresees the moral courage and strength, the ability to meet
all that may come before him. There are no doubts or
fears or maudlin qualms over the "terrible responsibility"
which is now laid upon her, lest this thing of beauty be
suddenly transformed into a thing unrighteous. But fol-
lowing the law of life, which is in God's hand, not hers, she
watches it unfold; see, she unfolds with it:
The highest life which in me rules,
Through your pure light I now behold;
When thus daily I cherish and tend.
Fresh joys unto my soul you lend.
Now come the many "serene but powerful" manifesta-
tions of child life. The mother gladly welcomes every
sign of this growing gift; she sings of the days to come,
through her knowledge of the days gone by, and, true
philosopher that she is, knowing that the conclusion of her
premise can only bring more joy, greater beauty, and
nobler aspirations, she cheers on each new response to
life's law. Her babe never was a little animal, hence he
may not grow into a greater animal; nay, he was and ever
will be one of God's human children, none the less inspi-
rational than green glade or rippling brook. Read the last
204 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
lines of this song, and see how our ideally practical mother
interprets her child's every effort:
Soon among other children he'll find
Food and experience to busy his mind.
These things even now in beginning I see;
They shall all be nurtured in silence by me.
There are many noble sermons in the following two
songs, but we can only hint at the most vital points, in this
paper. Read them over, and then talk them over with
every mother you know. Test and sound this philosophy
of everyday spirituality, and prove its practicability in your
free or mission kindergarten, where children's inheritances
seem incongruous. Note how frequently the mother uses
the word "both," as in —
Repose thou calmly on thy mother's breast;
Not thou alone — we both are blest.
This brings us to the last of the group, — the child at its
mother's breast, eagerly and yet contentedly taking milk.
Is this done in animal instinct, and must mother's fond
philosophy be set aside for the time being? Froebel thus
interprets:
A native instinct now doth move
The child who knows his mother's love.
As he from her takes daily food,
From her he seeks the highest good.
Mother, not only food he takes from thee,
But, to deep-hidden instinct true,
Fellowship he searches, too,
From mother's heart of sympathy.
These simple songs bring much meaning to such as
interpret intuitive feeling, doing, and influencing as spir-
itual quantities. It can scarcely be the result of mere
chance that Froebel places them at the portal of his book
of interpretations. They certainly set the standpoint from
which he views not only humanity, but the education of
humanity. We may not agree with his doctrine in detail,.
but we must recognize it in order to justly read him and his
book. — Amalic Hofer.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 205
A COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM.
(Written for the I. K. U.)
Unity of thought and unity of action are now consid-
ered essential requirements in planning and carrying out a
day's program in the kindergarten.
The days of disjointed, disconnected, haphazard min-
gling of gift plays, songs, and games are happily things of
the past; so far distant do they seem, that it appears almost
incredible that they ever lived and animated a present time.
We congratulate ourselves that now our day is so well
designed that one thing is but a continuation or enlarge-
ment of another; everything follows in such orderly pro-
cession, that one but supplements and amplifies the other.
• We do not cease our efforts here; we even extend the
connecting link through a week, using the same thought to
bind all together. Frequently we enlarge still more. We
find the original thought thread serves for a whole month;
and how satisfactory such months are, only those know
who have felt and seen their awakening influence.
We have all tried this plan. We have found it more
fruitful than the same number of weeks' work when each
week has had a different story to tell. The child has had
more time and opportunity to see the connection of things.
It may be that he has had such a kindergarten environment
that he discovers, to his great awe and boundless delight,
that he is indebted to earth, air, and water for many of his
treasured possessions, — so precious that he, as every kinder-
gartner knows, cannot bear to leave them behind him, but
fills his pockets with them to overflowing. What an un-
folding is this of the secret springs of life! It is no mean
return for a month's expenditure of time.
But probably most of us will grant that our efforts have
been commensurate with our conviction of the scope of our
principal topic, so that its sub-headings have filled not a
month, but months. We ourselves then perceive more
truly the import and bearing of our subject, and conse-
quently are enabled to place things in their proper relation
and connection.
2C6 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
If this be so, then we should see that the subject se-
lected for consideration is a comprehensive one, including
a wide range of topics, yet all embraced in one main sub-
ject.
Do not fear monotony because one subject is held for
such a length of time. It will be anything but wearisome,
because there are so many different aspects of it to be
viewed; and what has already been seen will give but suffi-
cient experience to comprehend, and consequently enjoy,
the new.
Neither need there be shipwreck because of the magni-
tude of the subject. It progresses step by step, so naturally
that it but unfolds itself, revealing its hidden truths only
when apprehension has been quickened by truth already
become instinct with meaning.
Is it not desirable to so measure forces that they will be
presented in their true proportion and proper environment?
Is it not also of unmeasured importance that childhood
should recognize the close ties of all nature, of all human-
ity, and be cognizant of their claims and privileges? Can
childhood's heart not feel that,
Like warp and woof, all destinies
Are woven fast?
Is it possible to do this in the best way without a long
look ahead? Then only can we sketch our program to the
very best advantage.
That which presents itself most strongly as the central
and controlling power is the one we would select for our
principal subject.
So intricate and manifold are the linkings and inter-
lacings of life, that we may rest assured we will never be at
a loss for a comprehensive subject, and yet, as is most
requisite, one including things well within the grasp of our
children. Indeed, the sub-subjects must be those we are
speaking of every day, the only difference being — though
that difference is a most radical one — that they are so pre-
sented as to show their true significance as factors in
life's history. Does it seem as though this could be rightly
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 20/
done, unless the various subjects are from time to time
grouped together under some large truth?
Suppose, for sake of illustration, we wish to reach the
children through the home. We dwell on the mother's
work, — the daily round of duties that each new da}- brings
in its train. While this talk is still proving absorbing,
natural phenomena demand attention in the form of ice
and snow; the beautiful cr}'stals must be examined when
they visit us; the white snow and the glistening icicles will
not come at our bidding, therefore it seems imperative that
we devote some time to them. With regret we abandon
home life, and watch the falling snow instead.
When this subject is ended perhaps we take up miner-
als, including coal, iron, and silver.
Each subject has been well chosen and well treated, but
isolated; no one truth Has permeated them all and helped
to make their influence lasting.
If the controlling thought had been wide enough to
hold all, the}- could have run hand in hand, or at least one
subject need not have been closed for the sake of another.
If the subject chosen had been "The Interdependence
of All Things," starting with the familiar home life, how
naturalh' the miner's work would ha\'e been carried right
into the home.
Elvery child, even the tiniest, knows how necessary an
article is coal in the family economy; and now how it has
enlarged his horizon! He knows not only its source, but
also how much labor has to be expended before the family
coal bin can be filled. He feels himself drawn into union
with the miner of the coal, the train hands that carry it to
his city, and all the other, helpful agencies that may have
been mentioned.
The railroad tracks, the cars, the engine, are always ob-
jects of interest to the child; but now they assume fresh
import as factors in transportation of coal.
This would be an opportunity for making the acquaint-
ance of iron ore. We instantly think of numberless ways
of introducing it into the family circle; in fact, it is already
208 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
there, transformed into the beneficent stove that holds the
coal, the knife that cuts the bread, and — but I'll not weary
you by repeating the familiar list.
What shall come next? The very magnitude of our
subject gives us liberty.
It is a snowy day. The crystals are unusually fine.
Such an opportunity for examining the fairy stars must not
go unimproved. They are caught as they fall, and eagerly
gazed upon; but we have to look quickly, for the fairy star
so soon disappears to give place to — a drop of water.
An observing child brings into kindergarten a giant
icicle. It is delightedly commented on. It is so cold to
handle, that by common consent it is put in a bowl where
all can see it. The giant dwindles slowly but surely, until,
when closing hour comes, only a baby icicle remains, and
the bowl is half full of — water. Very little questioning
elicits many answers, showing how invaluable water is to
mother and children, and also to the miner; for the children
know it is used in mining operations.
But suppose our snowy day deferred its arrival, and we
were talking of that never-ending branch of home indus-
try,— sewing, — when little Susie delightedly pipes out,
"My mamma has a thimble to help her; it's made of sil-
ver." Well, then, we must find out whether thimbles grow
on trees, or how we get them. You see, of course, that sil-
ver now binds together animate and inanimate nature in
the source of its supply, the power of water, the agency of
the miner, and its own utility in the home.
Henry is now the proud bearer of a toy lantern which
shows unmistakable marks of Japanese handiwork.
The children admire it so greatly, that the morning talk
clusters around it; in the games we board the steamer and
sail away to far Japan to visit our strange little brothers
and sisters, not neglecting to thank the miner for the nec-
essary coal and steel, and admiring the power and beauty
of the great sea waves.
We find so many delightful things that the talk is re-
sumed next morning. The gay parasols and fans, the kites
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 2O9
and dolls, that are brought into the kindergarten make it
very realistic and altogether charming.
While we are discovering in how many wa5^s we and the
interesting Japanese are dependent upon each other, we
also find ourselves fully launched in our spring work. The
kite suggests the work of the wind; the tea plant, warmth
and sunshine; and the silkworm, the awakening of dormant
life.
And so through no intermeddling words of ours, but
simply by presenting our subjects in their true connection,
the child sees their inherent controlling influence upon
each other, and knows trtdy, though in part, that all things
are dependent one upon another.
It may seem, on the moment, that this is truly so gener-
ous a subject that few others like it can be found; but a lit-
tle thought proves this false. Take the thought of life as
shown in movement or growth: the little seed awakes and
climbs to the light; the baby bird flutters its tiny wings,
and at last, through effort achieved, gains fuller life; the
little child grows as it also uses its powers; and so the
thought might be extended to the limit of the vision of our
kindergarten babies.
Still another subject might be the certainty of cause and
effect. It includes in its inevitable consequences the tiniest
as well as the mightiest; all the laws of nature^ physical,
mental, and moral — are involved and controlled by it.
Thus examples might be multiplied; but the desire is
simply to show the advantages of a comprehensive program.
— Mary L. Lodor, Philadelphia.
WOOL AND LEATHER VERSUS CHILD GROWTH.
1 was glancing over the kindergarten department of an
eastern educational journal the other day, when my eyes
fell upon these words: "The morning talks for September
will be on wool and leather."
Shades of Froebel deliver us! Is this what kindergar-
tening is coming to? Is it not time that we rise up in
righteous indignation and protest? What is the purpose
210 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of the morning- talk? Is it not to connect tlic outside life of
the cliildren with the thought which the kindergartner
wishes to have them dwell upon that day? Ought not this
central thought of the day to have some connection with
the inner, spiritual development of the child? Wool and
leather are very g-ood utilitarian articles, and it is well
enough that all children should learn certain facts concern-
ing- them. But is the accumulation of these wool-and-
leather facts the "training of the child's emotions," about
which we heard so much at the recent international con-
gress? Will all the facts that can be learned about ivool
and leather, even if the precious morning talks of a whole
month are given to the task, be "teaching the child to enter
into life with a sympathetic presentiment of its meaning"?
Let us suppose, for example, that the little ones of one
kindergarten are so fortunate as to live near some trees;
and they come to the kindergarten with their hands full of
the rich red and yellow leaves of the autumn's splendor, —
leaves so beautiful that they have stirred the young hearts
and have been brought as treasures to the kindergarten.
They must be laid aside; wool is the subject to be discussed!
Perchance some wise and loving mother has taken her dar-
ling to the park, or better still, on a day's excursion to the
real country, and the young explorer has brought back a
cocoon, or a bunch of autumnal twigs with their cunningly
wrapped baby leaves so securely protected from the com-
ing storms of winter. These must be ignored, or, at best,
only politely admired; leather is the subject for the day!
By no great stretch of imagination we can conceive of
another kindergarten in a neighborhood where some build-
ing is going on. With eager interest the children watch
the masons lay brick upon brick on the ever-growing
wall, or gaze with unbounded admiration upon the carpen-
ters mounted high upon their ladders. Veritable heroes
are these skilled workmen to the childish heart. But all
talk about them must be suppressed. "The morning talks
for September are to be upon zvool and leather^
Is it not time that a stop be put to this wholesale issu-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. . 211
ing of the details of program work? Must not each kinder-
gartner work according to her own children's needs? Let
us never lose the thought that facts are subordinate to
growth in the kindergarten world. — Elisabeth Harrison,
Chicago.
ROUND-TABLE CHAT AMONG KINDERGARTNERS.
"It is a surprise to me that my children have been in
kindergarten a month, and have scarcely mentioned the
World's Fair in that time. They have gone back to last
year, and are full of exclamations — 'Do you remember this,
and that?' It does not trouble me, however. My program
can wait until they have bridged over the gap of the sum-
mer and established themselves in their own 'nests of
thought,' as Ruskin describes this home feeling."
"Do you not think that we. attempt to begin our so-
called regular work too soon at the opening of the year?
Should we expect the children to fall into our organized
plans so readily? Should there not be more time given to
the nesting of themselves into our organic plan of work
and life? It seems to me that if the entire time from Sep-
tember to Christmas were spent in these gradual adjust-
ments, in which, thread by thread, the kindergartner gath-
ers together her children's past, their temperaments, their
abilities and affections, — that the latter part of the year
would be more blessed in its fruition."
"I am one of those kindergartners whose ideals are
many and lofty, but at times very vague. It was said to me
not long ago, that I make too great an effort to realize my
ideals. I go so far avv'ay from the children to fetch great,
fine thoughts; but I do not always make clear to them
what I mean. This was a hard criticism at the time, but it
has done me much good. After all, why should I strain
so to work out a beautiful sequence of materials, hoping
thereby to challenge the respect of other kindergartners.
when nature herself pours all forms, colors, qualities, and
all manner of things about the children without hurting
them?"
212 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
"We need more old-fashioned common sense in our
work. We are so busy 'fetching' up our programs, that
we don't half live with our children; and yet that is our
foundation text. If we did no more than live comfortably,
happily, and cordially with the children from nine to twelve
o'clock, we would do a great deal."
" I have always opened my program with a study of
family life, using the bird family as my text. We traced
out the home and habits of the birds, in order to picture to
the child in a symbolic way his own family relationship.
Why not take the cat or dog to illustrate this principle?
What do you think about this? The evolutionists say that
these animals do not show true parental care. But we
would not be teaching the absolute facts, but merely illus-
trating the family thought, — as a child does when he sees
the stars, and calls the large one Papa-star, another
Mamma-star, and ever so many Baby-stars!"
"The first day is still a problem to me. How can we
avoid so much talking and explaining?"
"That seems scarcely a problem; do not try to tell it
all in one day. If the children are shy and quiet let them
be so, and you meet them half way, but no more."
" I know a kindergartner who tells a very dramatic story
the first thing. She says it sets them to thinking and talk-
ing. My private opinion is that it frightens them. It
seems to coerce them, take them by surprise, and then she
can do anything she wishes with them." — C. M. P. H.
PUBLIC SCHOOL KINDERGARTENS OF SUPERIOR, WIS., NO EX-
PERIMENT.
The First Annual Report of the Board of Education of
Superior, Wis., bears every mark of progressive educational
intelligence. The fact that this board directs nine public
school kindergartens is practical evidence of the above
statement. The following report was made by Miss Sara
Severance, supervisor of these kindergartens, and embodied
in the general report. It \vi
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 2I3
and sound kernel for the many interested in the combina-
tion of the kindergarten and the public school:
To some, the extension of kindergartens in the public
schools means but a matter of statistics, and it is not with-
out interest that we find such an astonishing number of
four-year-olds ready to enter the educational arena. Our
state laws are such that the four-year-old infant is legally
entitled to entrance into the public schools. But while
mere statistics are interesting, to many the chief interest
lies in the vital importance of the work — I had almost
written "work done"; perhaps it would be better to put it,
"work attonpted.
To some our work will always seem but the merest
child's play; but to many who can see below the surface,
the evolution which brings from the lawless, thoughtless,
destructive, home-ruling despot of four or five years a think-
ing, reasonable, law-abiding, industrious, happy creature, is
not so strange or wonderful as it might be. People are slow
to see that the laws of nature must underlie all true work.
The very name given our school — kindergarten, i. e., child-
garden — suggests the method of culture.
Each teacher finds it necessary to study and know each
child under her care, as well as its home interests and en-
vironments. She must know the general laws underlying
the development of the human mind. She must possess
the intelligence, tact, and good sense to supply just what
each child seems to need for the furtherance of its growth
physically, mentally, and morally. Our work with the child
is many sided; from the first it must be disciplinary in the
highest sense of that word, — that is, a developing and edu-
cating power. Some one else has truthfully said, that
"Much of the 'stupidity' which we see in children — and
even in grown people — is largely the expression of long-
continued unwholesome mental discipline; the truth is, dis-
cipline is not discipline unless it is wholesome."
"Beginnings hold the germs of all fulfillments;" and it is
here, in kindergarten, at the threshold of life, that the child
must learn that true happiness comes only through obedi-
ence to law. The child is not conscious of the educational
purpose which is ever in the teacher's mind, but she must
secure his self-activity as well as self-control, — not merely
spontaneous activity, but intelligent activity. Cooperation
must be secured from each individual in the small republic.
The freedom from constraint which is essential in any
school for children from four to six years of age, allows
214 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
much interference of each pupil with the work of others,
hence much distraction of attention. It is often difficult to
preserve the perfect balance; but there are kindergartens
and kindergartens; and wherever is found not only the
spirit of genuine play, glad interest in physical and mental
activity, of hearty good-fellowship, but in addition to all
this a strong and peaceful inward or atmospheric order, tJicre
is found the true kindergarten; and for such it is that we are
working.
But we are living in a practical age, and our first inquiry
concerning any scheme of thought or action is, Of what im-
mediate, material use is it? We take the children before
they are ready for school life. Our task is to employ and
stimulate the awakening minds of the children, and to exert
an influence over their entire beings. Ours is the work of
preparation. We furnish the connecting link between home
and school.
The success of any systematic teaching must depend
largely upon the extent to which the mind of the pupil has
been rendered receptive before the particular instruction
began. The purpose of material devised for kindergarten
use is to facilitate from the first the perception of outward
objects. This is accomplished by the simplicity, by the
method, and above all by the fitness of the things set before
the child to enable it the more easily to take in form, size,
number, color, sound, etc., and by their definiteness, serial
order, and connection, to produce clear and distinct impres-
sio/is, which shall correspond to the first budding powers of
comprehension. They serve to assist the development of
the senses in the easiest manner: viz., through the action of
the child; and in all this the little blocks, clay, paper, thread,
sticks, etc., the thousand and one little things used in the
small industries of kindergarten, are the rounds in the lad-
der, only means toward an end, the means being brought
down to suit the simplicity of the child's mind. The basis
is truth, in whatever form it may be embodied. But kin-
dergarten can never bring something out of nothing. The
best tillage cannot raise knowledge out of a mind where
nature has not planted the germ. Nor can we, in the short
time which we are able to keep those who are put into our
care, expect to send forth the ideal kindergarten graduate.
In many cases the spring and fall avalanche of four-year-old
humanity has crowded into the primary grade the little five-
3'ear-olds whom we had hoped to keep another year. Often
they must leave to make way for the new ones when they
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 21 5
are but three months old in kindergarten work. You will
realize how^ this may be when you read the figures repre-
senting the number left on the roll after promotions are
made in the fall, and then remember that some kindergar-
tens will have more than thirty new applicants at the begin-
ning of the fall term. In such cases, one grade must be
passed out and on. I know of only two instances, in our
city kindergartens, where children have been retained
longer than one year.
Though ours is a school of preparation, not of results, I
think we may expect the following developments in a nor-
mal child w^ho has attended kindergarten regularly for one
year — from five to six years of age.
Concepts will have been gained by the constant handling
and observing of objects. He will have learned to talk and
express himself intelligently. Eye has been trained quickly
to detect differences in form and direction. A quick eager-
ness is excited to learn about objects by which he is sur-
rounded. Thus the very foundation for reading has been
laid. In addition to this, through the use of stories told by
the teacher and reproduced by him, a love for good, pure
literature, for the study of history, and the seeds of patriot-
ism have been planted.
He has learned to count to twenty, using objects, and he
has also prompt recognition of groups of objects to six.
In his plays of trade life he has become familiar with the
halves in one whole, the quarters also; the number of pints
in one quart; number of inches in a foot; number of feet in
one yard. He is practically acquainted with elementary
geometry, in the different direction of lines and angles and
the inclosing of spaces by lines. Thus the child gains dis-
tinct perceptions of form, size, and direction, and acquires
a skill of hand and training of the eye which will be invalu-
able in future life.
By constant use of them, he has a knowledge of the
fundamental forms of all nature, as seen in the ball, cube,
and cylinder. He is awakened to a sense of the practical
use of mathematics.
The child becomes familiar with terms: up, down, back,
front, under, above, right, left; cardinal points of compass;
source, direction, and use of clouds, rain, hail, snow, and
wind.
In each kindergarten the children make their daily
record of weather. Names of days, months, and seasons
are learned; also the use of the calendar is taught. Much
Vol 6-14
2l6 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
attention is attracted to the clock and its usefulness, prepar-
atory to learning- to tell time. He studies the usefulness of
heavenly bodies, especially that of the sun. Some knowl-
edge is gained of different soils, bodies of water, their use-
fulness to man; interdependence of nations as well as of
individuals; national life and resources. All this furnishes
foundation of the formal study and appreciation of geogra-
phy.
In drawing, as in all our work, there is no attempt at
teaching art; it is used only that we may further impress
truths, or see with what degree of accuracy the child has
observed and can give outward expression to inward im-
pression; also to give the teacher added insight into the
child's mind and native ability. First we teach the length
of stroke for steadiness and freedom; then the smaller work
with pencil, mat weaving, stick laying, paper folding, etc., to
give flexibility of fingers and wrist.
The child has learned all the principal parts of his body,
their use, needs, and care. He has learned economy of
force by daily exercise suited to his need in the overcoming
of physical weakness or awkwardness. This knowledge is
shown in the quick, quiet, and easy movements of all parts
of the body. Personal cleanliness and neatness are en-
joined.
Ability is given to distinguish and name the primary
colors, to follow dictation, to concentrate. He is trained to
obedience and attention, and a logical, orderly method of
thought and work. A love for good music and harmony is
instilled.
Is the perfect kindergarten upon earth? No, for the
perfect kindergarten presupposes the perfect teacher.
Is there, then, no perfect kindergarten teacher?
No; there has been but one perfect Teacher upon earth,
and he knew the oid from the beginnhig ; and it is only as
we follow his plan that we can in any degree realize our
ideal for each soul in our charge. The true ideal kindergar-
ten would bring to earth the love and law of heaven.
ANOTHER KINDERGARTEN PRIMARY.
Kindergartners have long stood upon the bank of a
rushing stream which the little people cross with their
hands and aprons full of blossoms from the seed planted by
Froebel. The primary teacher on the other side says
firmly, "These are pretty, but you cannot use them here;"
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 21 7
and too often, when putting books into their hands, she for-
gets to keep before them the book of nature, which, in their
beautiful gartefi, they had been so ready to read. The kin-
dergartner thinks sadly that the flowers they gather so ea-
gerly w^ill be piled upon the bank, while the little ones will
forget even the fragrance of the bloom. The primary
teacher longs to use the blossoms that made the garten so
bright, but reading, spelling, and writing — these claim the
time. Sometimes she thinks she prefers children who have
picked no blossoms, who do not know the freedom of the
garten, who will go to the work she gives them with no
longing to recross the stream.
Gradually the seeds shaken from some mature plant are
springing up on the primary side. It grows to look more
like the garten. This change is noticeable in all the best
primary schools of the country. Sometimes, too, the little
folks are allowed to go back into the garte?i for awhile
every day. The connecting class in National City, Cal., is
"kindergarten" in its work and surroundings, while at the
same time it does the grade work of the first-year primary.
The kindergarten of National City, during the first two
years of its existence, was supported by Mr. and Mrs. F. A.
Kimball. Adopted by the public school, it remained for
three years in no way related to the other departments.
This year it was removed to the primary school building,
and now the primary and the kindergarten join hands in a
connecting class of twenty-two who enter school for the
first time, and, instead of beginning at once the routine
work of the primary, remain for the greater part of the time
downstairs in charge of a kindergartner with whom they
carry on the higher kindergarten work. Twice a day they
go upstairs for the reading and number work, ^he rest of
the grade work is taught in connection with gifts and occu-
pations.— A^. C.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING BOOKS.
The progress made in primary methods in education has
brought about a need for reading matter that cannot be
found in the ordinary First and Second Readers. We must
215 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
have something to supplement our work in science, his-
tory, and literature, is the great cry coming from the teach-
ers of primary grades.
When the child's interest has been aroused through the
science lesson in a tree, shell, or whatever the subject has
been; when he has handled it, expressed it in drawing, writ-
ing, painting, or other means of expression; after all this is
done, when the time comes to read, he is handed a First
Reader. The lesson has nothing to do with what he is in-
terested in or is thinking about; his reading lesson comes
to him an isolated thing, and he goes through it mechan-
ically with little or no thought but the form of the word or
letters.
Perhaps you could picture to yourself the delight a child
would express if handed a book with a lesson on the very
subject which has so interested him. It would be as great a
delight as eating his dinner if he were very hungry.
Some of the first supplementary reading can be the
natural step, using the child's own sentences, reproducing
them with typewriter, having them printed, or writing
them. Here the child finds the result of his own observa-
tions, expressing his own thought in the written sentences;
he meets an old friend, and welcomes it. From this step
you can take the next easily, and use some of the new
books written to answer this need. Among them are " Na-
ture Studies for Young Readers." This delightful book is
made up of some sentences children have expressed them-
selves; it will be a great aid to teachers who have done little
in this line, in its suggestiveness. It is one of the simplest
of Readers. The "Seaside and Wayside" books, though not
always entirely scientific, are good for this reading.
All th^ following books are good when used wisely by
the teacher: "Leaves and Flowers," by Spear; this greatly
enhances your science lessons on trees, leaves, the principal
flowers of the seasons; "The Stories Mother Nature Told,"
by Jane Andrews; "Seven Little Sisters," by Jane Andrews;
"Cats and Dogs," by Johonnot; "Fables and Folk Stories,"
by Horace Scudder; yEsop's Fables.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 2ig
These books must be adapted to the grades and needs
of the children. To use them satisfactorily, the interest
must first be aroused in the subjects they present. This
will result in thought reading, not merely word reading, at
the same time cultivating a taste for science and literature.
— B.H.
FREE-HAND PAPER CUTTING.
"In the Mothers' Department of the September number
of the Kindergarten Magazine is an article entitled
'Scissors, and How to Use Them.' In this article refer-
ence is made to the kindergartners having arranged a
series of free-cutting exercises. I am very anxious to get
hold of such a series, as I wish to use it at once in my
school. Kindly tell me where I can get it. — L. /?'
The series so arranged by the kindergartners is based
upon geometric form, as already indicated in the September
number. The first step being spirals, the strength of hand
is steadied and at the same time the child is illustrating
progression.
The second step is that of cutting simple life forms, in
which the underlying forms of circle, oval, square, triangle,
or oblong, are modified by some outer addition, such as
the apple, other fruits, etc.
The third step is the modification of these forms within
the set geometric outline, such as a house front with
windows and doors, or a hemisphere which outlines the
continents.
The fourth step is that of artistic designs, — such as
snowflakes, floral or historic art forms. A series in this
department may be developed from the seaweeds and
ferns, which present such an unlimited variety of fancy
traceries. A so-called school of work is here suggested,
which any kindergartner may work out to her own profit
and pleasure. But when adapted to the kindergarten she
must use the art of arts, — that of meeting the needs of her
children and their environments. A kindergartner in the
220 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
far South would not spend much time in snowflakes, nor
would an inland circle evolve many sea-life forms. The
child will ever guide the kindergartner into the application
of this or any other means of expression. — S. T. M.
CHILD AND THIRSTY FLOWERS.
This song embodies the same thought of nurture and
care which is found in Froebel's "Little Gardener." It
may be adjusted to include the potted window-plants dur-
ing the winter. If you have such, by all means give them
into the care of the children, — at first attended by you; but
soon leave the children to fulfill their duty to the plant
themselves:
Straight and tall in the garden beds
The flowers stood yesterday;
But now they are nodding their dainty heads,
And each one seems to say,
"O Wind, bring a shower of summer rain;
Come, Night, and bring cool dew;
O dear little Child, come back again;
We are thirsty, and wait for you."
Now nod and beckon, for down the path
He comes with a merry call:
" Poor dears, here's a drink and shower bath, —
Fresh water for each and all."
"We'll drink and bathe and grow strong again;
We'll raise our cups to the sun.
And thank the child for loving care.
With blossoms for everyone."
— Bertha Payjie.
FIRST-GIFT SONG AND GAME.
Red and blue and yellow gay,
Out together come to play;
Blending' with them may be seen
Purple, orange bright, and green.
Count them as they stand in line;
See how bright their colors shine:
Red and orange, yellow, green,
Blue and violet too, I ween!
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 221
So the rainbow colors bright
Meet to form the ray of light.
Gentle ray, come visit me;
I your cheerful light would see.
One child stands in the ring, and the balls are distrib-
uted to six children. During the first two lines of the song,
those holding the primary colors come into the ring to
play, holding their balls high. The secondary-color bearers
follow, and all form in line for the count, which is made a
feature of and done by the child in the ring, who then
kneels, and the beam of light, represented by the balls held
out in line, rests over his head.
If there is to be a second round of the game, each child
may present his ball to the chosen successor, and the child
in the ring may choose who shall take his place. — Cornelia
Fidtoii Crary, Poughkcepsie, N. Y.
SONG FOR OPENING GIFT BOXES.
One — our hands fly up so high;
Two — these hands on the box now lie;
Three — and over the box they turn;
Four — the twist again they learn;
Five — now out the lid they draw;
Six — the box is lifted o'er;
Seven — 'tis put at the table's back.
See our cube, with its criss-cross crack.
— Esther Gill Jackson, Baltimore.
A SWINGING SONG.
Ha, ha, ha! free as a lark.
Up, up, up we go;
Ha, ha, ha! swift as a shark,
Down, down, down we go.
Up, up, up, and down, down, down,
Now to the sky and now to the ground;
Through the air in our beautiful swing.
Like a bird on a tireless wing,
Oh, oh, oh! and ho, ho, ho!
Merrily, merrily go.
— Alzvin B. Jovenil.
222 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
A NEW KINDERGARTEN SONG COLLECTION.
"Song Stories for the Kindergarten," by Mildred J. and
Patty S. Hill, is the title on the blue cover of the new song-
book just completed. Kindergartners have long been wait-
ing for these promised songs, which have been demonstrated
for several years among the children of the simpler classes.
Owing to the necessity which compels a simple and yet
living quality in the music for very young children, this
collection stands unique and eminently valuable.
A kindergarten song, viewed from the standpoint of
music, is one of the most difficult things to write, — cer-
tainly just as difficult to construct as a kindergarten story.
Old heads do not readily reach that height of "sweet sim-
plicity" which enables them to think as the child, and
hence their efforts at writing for children are apt to fall
into the Charybdis of drivel or be wrecked on the Scylla of
highly complex art.
Many years' experience with the child thought has
made clear to me this fact: that there is a childlike trend
of tones in key which must give to the writer of children's
songs a clew to the construction of 'melodies which the
youngest child can easily grasp and retain; that outside of
this childlike melodic progress an effort must be put forth
which is beyond the capacity of the average kindergarten
child.
Some have made the effort to meet the child's wants by
diluting the great masters, somewhat upon the plan of the
one-legged — I beg pardon! I mean the one-syllabled —
Shakespeare. This, however, has not succeeded. No
doubt many melodies, seemingly simple enough, as far as
melodic progress is concerned, might be selected from the
great composers, but somehow they have a character which
would seem to be infinitely beyond the child's thought; and
the very simplicity of the melodic form becomes a stum-
bling-block.
Among all the well-known classic writers perhaps no
one embodies in his melodies so much of the real essence
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 223
of childlike song as Mozart; but one would have to use him
sparingly.
Nor will many of the folk-songs answer; for they are
apt to reflect national characteristics in either melodic or
rhythmic forms of expression that are not easy for Amer-
ican children, to say the least, to apprehend.
It is not strange, therefore, that one brought up in the
atmosphere of the kindergarten would be strongly moved
to original construction of melodies which should meet the
exigencies of the child's thought in both its musical aspect
and the inner meaning of the play or song.
What Miss Bryan says in her preface to this new book,
regarding verse, is just as applicable to the song.
She says: "It must be evident that in the selection of
songs for different phases in the development of a truth,
there frequently will be the need of one to convey a certain
impression, a shade different in meaning from any that can
be found in the song books at hand; this will lead to the
necessity of creating a song, since for conscious, definite
work, not every song on the general subject will answer.
. . . . Every song in this collection was directly in-
spired by a need for some special expression, and the result
in each case was original work or adaptation of the verses
of others."
And in speaking of the melodies themselves, she
remarks that "The selections have been made not only
with reference to their adaptability to the idea, but for the
reason that the intervals are easy and the music childlike.
In no instance has the choice been the result of the music
happening to 'fit' the words. On the contrary, frequently
when music was found which embodied the sentiment of a
desired song, the words were written for or changed to suit
the music, and sometimes a change made in both."
The music cannot be judged, therefore, wholly from the
standpoint of a Reinecke, but from the basis of a pure
music thought springing from the actual conditions of the
child mind as found in the kindergarten.
.Speaking from this point of view, and the experience of
224 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
many years of work with the child mind, the majority of
the original and adapted songs in this work seem to me
more truly suitable to the kindergarten child than any col-
lection known to me, admirable as many of them are.
Attention should be called to the accompaniments,
which are simple enough to be within the capacity of many
mothers, but which are characteristic, and so all-inclusive
that it is possible for the accompanist who is also a miisi-
ciafi, to sing the whole songy^r the children, with the piano-
forte.— Calvin B. Cady, Chicago Conservatory of Music.
The song " Bye Baby Bye," published in this number, is
taken from the newly published kindergarten collection by
Miss Mildred and Patty Hill, of Louisville. They can be
secured by prompt mail through the Kindergarten Liter-
ature Co.
A child's questions.
Tell me, you dear little leaves,
Falling so gently down,
Did the old mother tree
Write a story to me,
On your tinted pages
Of red, gold, and brown?
Tell me, you little oak leaf.
Where are the babies now
Of the robin red breast.
That built her warm nest j
And rocked them to sleep
On your strongest bough?
Dear little brown oak leaf,
W^here do your acorns go?
Do the squirrels take them all,
As soon as they fall,
And store them away.
Or leave some to grow?
— yiiliette Pulver.
BYE BABY BYE
Author (>f words unknown.
Tenderly
t
shad-ow lies, Bye, ba-by
tiok - le link -le, Bye- ba-by
guard and bless thee, Bye, ba-by
bye! 0
Bye,
ba-by
bye.
b3e! 0
Bye,
ba-by
bye.
bye! 0
Bye,
ba-by
bye.
'IfJ i J
ist
m
^m
n
Wff
T T f f
^f\*
^^^
r f 1.1 iJ
-u^
(From "Song Stories for the Kindergarten," by permission.
226 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
MUSIC, NEGATIVELY AND POSITIVELY CONSIDERED.
To discover the office of music in elementary education,
we must, of course, consider the special conditions of the
child. Briefly stated, they are these: Man is born upon a
physical plane, with the faculty to become a rational, moral
being. He is a creature with germ of thought and will
power. To what end shall he strive for this development?
What means are at hand to aid him? What help can come
from within? What comes from without?
Everyone knows that an attempt to analyze the power
of music over man is much like an experiment in vivisec-
tion, turn on the search light as fully as we may. This is a
province where we shall always feci far more than we can
explain. We shall surely blunder if we look only at one
point. Mrs. Browning shows where our error is, when she
says: "Very many Christian teachers are wrong in just my
sense, who understand life too insularly, as if
" No spiritual counterpart completed it, consummating its meaning,
rounding all
To justice and perfection, line by line, form by form, nothing single or
alone,
The Great Below clenched by the Great Above."
We need to know these spiritual counterparts; for the
stream can never rise higher than its fountain, and there
must be in the beginning of things, in the first sense train-
ing, in the first feeling,. knowledge which shall lead to the
study and expression of art forms from the best motives
which impel us to action.
Froebel makes the way very plain. We need but to find
from the "Mother-Play" how a right taste, a right hearing,
a right seeing, all stand for a groundwork on which to
build the higher taste, the enlarged seeing which is faith,
and the spiritual counterpart of the hearing which Christ
himself tells us is doing. The Bible and our own human
experience constantly speak of this inner connection of
hearing and doing. So who shall say that it matters not
when and how and what little children hear? Charles
Kingsley says that there is music in heaven, because there
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 22/
is no self-will.there. Have we not a definite lesson to learn,
then, in our dealings with children,— to use such tones as
will call forth the minimum of resistance, the maximum of
a willing obedience? Music should call into play — good
music does call into thought and feeling— the eternal lesson
of life, — self-subordination, self-renunciation, — and should
rouse a child to an action which at first may be nothing
more than the letting go of self, and yielding passively.
But woe betide us if we stop here, if we carry the child no
further! for no greater wrong can be done than to leave
him to the mercy of an emotion, unguided by thought.
I believe that there are fundamental musical types as
reliable for this great purpose of music, as are our typical
forms and typical colors; that just as much continuity and
strength can be presented to the child through this medium
as through any other sense training, with this additional
power,— that the right music will serve to govern, as well
as arouse those germs of feeling which later become life-
controlling emotions. It needs no great technical or scien-
tific knowledge of music to bring this heavenly lesson into
the kindergarten, for it is all ready and waiting for us.
We need only use discrimination in choice of what lies open
to our needs.
With the child's first effort to sing comes an inner de-
mand for the physical relaxation of the sound-producing
organs, as well as a balance of power, by which tone can be
sustained, which condition is in itself no mean illustration
of the law of reconciliation of contrasts. This inner im-
pulse to give and to hold, projects itself fearlessly at first,
and by a free expression of tone and movement the kin-
dergartner should soon learn to know something of the
characteristics of her children. Believe me, fellow kinder-
gartners, we have not led the child to gain its own ex-
periences along this line, as we have in our work with gift
and occupation.
We have formulated and dictated here after a fashion
worthy of the condemnation of some of the members of
some boards of education and some journalists of today.
228 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
When God made man he breathed into him the breath
of life; and I cannot doubt that there are in every child
vessels which still retain the vibrations of this Spirit, need-
ing only a right environment in which to be again breathed
forth by the little human, as it were of himself. Do not let
us, in our songs and games, stifle this power of hearing and
doing, by too arbitrary a prescription for the form of the
song and game. Let the child play with his voice, play
with gesture, as he plays with his ball. Let the song and
game be the expression of the child's feeling rather than
ours; and one word more: do not give words too soon; the
open vowels mean so much for the child, though he may
not know it! The musical tone of your own speaking voice
means so much to him in the matter of willing obedience!
I am not asking for any gushing sentimentalisms in address-
ing children in nursery, kindergarten, or school or home.
A child has need to feel the strength and authority of his
elders, as well as their tenderness.
See to it that when the time comes to unite word and
melody, the words have elements of imagery; and do not
let us try to make poetry without poetic ideas to build upon.
Each thing in its season. Life would be a queer medley
had it no prosaic side; and the children — we all — need the
stern lessons of use which this side of life teaches; but our
life today offers fifty opportunities for practice of these
exercises, where there is time and opportunity for but one
lesson from the other book.
We are really learning in the kindergarten what 7iot to
do; and when one ceases from evil, one may learn to do
well. — Alice H. Putnam.
The Martin Luther birthday dates November lo. It
may also be called a "thanksgiving" day. Many beautiful
photographic reprints of the greatest pictures on the home
life and work of Luther are to be had. He was musician,
poet, gentleman, orator, and noble father all in one.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 229
ASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN. NO. III.
( Written for the "Kindergarten Magazine.'")
THE STORY OF .MERCURY THE TWINKLER.
COPYRIGHTED.
Near the Giant Sun, either early in the
morning or early in the evening, one can
sometimes see frisky little Mercury, about
whom I told, you in the story of Giant Sun.
The sun keeps Mercury ver}' close to him,
so that he may not get into mischief, and
'.!llliy_^ fw.nu.,- ^^,|-^gj^ Qj-^g ^j^j^ gg^ ^ glimpse of him he
appears as a small white star slightly tinged with red.
Sometimes he is called the Twinkler, because he twinkles
and seems to be laughing at the people who are trying to
watch him dov/n on Earth. In fact, it is not at all easy to
see him, for he is either up very early in the morning, when
most little girls and boys are fast asleep, or very early in
the evening, just about the time Giant Sun is thinking about
putting on his nightcap and going to sleep. Even then he
twinkles so merrily that it is not easy to get a good steady
look at him. Besides, Mercury is a very small planet, as
you can see from this picture, which shows the difference
between the size of the earth, on which we live, and Mer-
cury.
A long time ago. people thought the morning Mercury
was one star, and the evening Mercury another; so they
called the morning star "Apollo, god of day," and the
evening star, "Mercury, the god of thieves," because he
stole so nmch light from the sun. But it was not long be-
fore astronomers found out that this frisky little planet was
both the morning star and the evening star, at different
times. However, he kept his name Mercury, which he well
deserves, as he steals more heat and light from the sun than
any other planet. He is like a spoiled child, and takes all
he can get. If people are living on Mercury, they must be
first cousins to the salamanders, who are just as comfortable
hopping round in a fire as the little brownies would be
playing round in the snow. If we were to leave our com-
230 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
fortable little planet Earth, and go to Mercury to live, we
would surely find it very warm. When Mercury is nearest
the sun, he receives ten and a half times more light than we
do; and even when he is at his greatest distance from the
sun, the light and heat he receives are four and a half times
greater than for us. What would we do if the sun shone
ten times more brightly than it does on our earth? We
woulci certainly be scorched and destroyed in no time.
The polar regions may be a little more com-
fortable as a ciwelling place on Mercury;
and by making a tunnel through the middle
of the planet, the people at the north pole
^ , could call on their friends at the south
T^^pu or, M=-<:,„y polc. It wouM bc impossible to live at the
^9 '''" " "' regions near the equator, nor could the Mer-
curials reach the polar regions by taking an ocean trip;
for the sun's heat is so great that it would boil any water
away. Not only would there not be enough water to float
an ocean steamer, but not even enough to float a straw.
Everything on Mercury weighs less than it does on our
earth, so that the elephant and hippopotamus, which are so
clumsy here, would be quite graceful and agile on this planet.
However, we ought to feel very pleased that we are not
living on Mercury, but on this comfortable planet Earth,
for which we are so well adapted. If we find it too warm
we can go north; or if we find it too cold we can go south;
and we have enough heat and cold to make it always pleas-
ant for us all the year round. If we were living on Mer-
cury, it would not be quite so nice. The seasons on Mercury
change more rapidly than they do on Earth, as a year on
Mercury only lasts eighty-eight days; so that
there are forty-four days of midwinter and
forty-four days of midsummer. Then, again.
Mercury travels round the sun at the rate of
about twenty-nine miles a second, or a hun-
dred times more rapidly than a rifle bullet.
Mercury is lighted by the sun's rays, and has phases,
like the moon. At first Mercury appears round, like a cres-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
231
cent; then it gradually gets larger and larger till it appears
like a round star; then it changes again, as shown in the
illustration:
Copernicus, a very great astronomer who lived during
the fifteenth century, was very anxious to get a glimpse of
Mercur}', for he despaired of ever seeing it. "T fear," said
this great man, "that I shall descend to the tomb without
having seen the planet." And indeed, he who had made
the planets the study of his life, died without seeing the
first among them. Galileo was able to observe it through a
telescope he had invented; but he could not see the phases.
For this reason the enemies of Copernicus, Galileo, and
Kepler said they must be mistaken in teaching that Mer-
cury and Venus (which also has phases) revolve round the
sun. "For," said they, "if these planets revolved round the
sun they would change their aspect to our eyes, as the
moon does, according as we see in front, in profile, or in
rear the illuminated part — the side, in fact, which they turn
toward the sun." You see, the old astronomers believed
that the sun went round the earth, instead of the earth go-
ing round the sun; but even the little boys and girls in our
day know better than that, and could teach those old as-
tronomers many things they did not know. But now we
must say good-by to Mercury; and next time we shall have
something to say about Venus, his next-door neighbor. —
Mary Proctor.
Vol 6-15
MOTHERS': DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO SEE THE FAIR WITH THE CHILDREN.
The following happy suggestions were made in one of
our city daily papers by Miss Elizabeth Harrison, of Chi-
cago, with particular reference to the school children's
week at the Fair. They contain so much that is valuable
which may be applied to the reviewing of the Fair during
the coming winter, that we reproduce them here for our
parents' column.
" Many mothers, embarrassed by the wealth of interest-
ing things which the World's Fair offers, have asked me
from time to time to help them decide where to take and
what to show their six, eight, and ten year old children.
This appeal for assistance has suggested the printing of the
following list for mothers who may be somewhat puzzled as
to how to best utilize next week's gift of a vacation from
the school board. Of course various children will want to
see various objects, and some peculiar children will need
peculiar guiding; but the average child wants to see that
in which his mother has interested him. It is for such I
send these suggestions. Many are interested in the his-
torical side of the Fair. Those 1 would take first to the
statue of Columbus, in front of the east entrance of the
Administration Building (having previously told them the
story of Columbus' life). Next visit the Convent, not stop-
ping for the confusing lot of pictures upon its wall:,, but to
get an idea of the quiet retreat this discouraged great heart
found. Sit in the inner court and rehearse the stor\ ul the
brave, hot, stormy life. The older children might jcrhaps
have the quaint old geographies and maps points wut to
them. But too many impressions must be careful! \ ..\ >ided.
Next visit the caravels, that they may the moi. vidly
realize the perils of that daring journey of discov. > . End
the day by a visit to the Russian exhibit ni the a, ; iery,
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 233
where those marvelous pictures have caught the spirit of
Columbus and reproduced it on canvas. This would be
enough study for the average child for one day.
"The rest of the time might be spent in some amuse-
ment. Let us remember always that a few good and last-
ing impressions are far more valuable than many hurried
and confused ones.
"The next day might be given up to a leisurely stroll
through the Horticultural Building, attention being called
to the tropical plants and trees which are so foreign to us.
The dwarf trees from Japan, the orchids, and a few such
curious oddities might be sought out. The Florida Build-
ing contains many interesting sea shells, corals, seaweeds,
and the like. A visit to the aquarium in the east wing of
the Fisheries Building might finish up the day. A view of
the Swiss Alps panorama is a treat to any child. I have
been asked again and again if the Hagenbeck animal show
was not to be included in this list of visits to the curious
and beautiful in nature. I will let one of my blessed kin-
dergarten trained mothers answer from her experience.
' Everybody told me,' said she, 'that I must let the chil-
dren see the trained animals. So one afternoon I bought
tickets for the Hagenbeck show. We all went — my hus-
band, my seven-year-old boy, five-year-old girl, and I.
Next morning I was attracted to the window by the loud,
harsh cries of my usually quiet boy. I looked out, only to be-
hold our dear old Tom, the pet cat who had shared all their
joys and their sorrows for years, tied by a string to a stake
and galloping round and round in a perfect frenzy of fear,
urged on by the whip and shout of|my son, while my gen-
tle little daughter stood by and aj^lauded. As they had
both been taught to be always tender and considerate
toward all that were more helpless than they, I was struck
with consternation. Upon my indignantly reproving their
cruelty, I found that they were merely reproducing the
scene of the previous afternoon as well as they could with
the material at hand. My kindergarten training had taught
me that the reproduction in dramatic play of the activities
234 ' THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of life was the natural and wholesome effort of children to
understand life.' I will only add that another friend was
present when some of the animals became unruly, and red-
hot irons were applied to them to compel them to submit
to the will of their masters. Each parent may judge for
himself or herself as to whether such sights ennoble child
nature.
"A third day might be given up to a study of the
curious habitations of mankind, beginning w^ith the Indian
tents and wigwams at the south end of the grounds, stop-
ping for a few minutes before the ruins of Yucatan and the
fairly good reproduction of the cave-dwellers. A visit to
the pioneer's log hut in the same locality will help the child
to realize something of the hardships our forefathers en-
dured. The South Sea Island and the Javanese dwellings
will delight the kindergarten child with their weaving..
The Japanese temple on the Wooded Island may be visited
next. The Eskimo and the Dahomey huts are for the tem-
porary convenience of their inhabitants, and they hardly
deserve study. The child who has learned to love Jane
Andrews' 'Seven Little Sisters' will find five of the little
sisters on the grounds. This day, given up to the study of
the races of men, may well end by a walk through our Gov-
ernment Building, where the wax figures so excellently
represent the various citizens of our republic. The Smith-
sonian exhibit in the same building will be interesting to
the older children.
"One of the most suggestive as well as profitable visits
to the World's Fair would be a day spent in tracing the
processes by which the raw materials of nature are trans-
formed into objects of industry and art. A visit to the
glass works in Midway Plaisance should be followed by an
examination of the rich and beautiful stained -glass exhibits
in Liberal Arts Building. The Forestry Building is espe-
cially attractive in its many illustrations of what trees may
be changed into by the skill and thought of man. The
Japanese exhibit in this building will attract almost all
children. A visit to the sawmills should precede this visit.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 235
In the Mining Building are to be seen the rough ore as it
comes fresh from the mines, and every step in its marvel-
ous transformation until it becomes finely finished steel in
cutlery and hardware. The Transportation Building will
delight the aspiring young heart, as it tells in such an em-
phatic way the fascinating story of the growth of means of
transportation, from the crude ox cart to the resplendent
Pullman palace train. The primitive mode of spinning is
to be seen in an upper room of the Louisiana Building, and
hand weaving and lace making are shown in the Irish
village.
"These are a few of the many wa}^s in which a visit to
the World's Fair may be made a pleasant and profitable
event to children, rather than a taxing, confusing episode,
wearying both body and mind and leaving scarcely any
definite impression. — Elizabctli Harrison!'
A LITTLE TALK ABOUT TAXATION.
Every faithful, earnest mother has beautiful theories
about bringing up her children; but it has seemed to me
that one is hardl}' ever able to appl}^ one's theories to
one's own children. Your methods might work success-
fully with some children, but not with the ones yoit happen
to be loving and training. As a mother told me not long
ago — "I thought I would know just how to bring up Kate
from the experiences I had with John; but she was alto-
gether different, and I had to learn the lessons all over
again."
I do not think that little children should be worldly
wise about money. If I could help it I would never have a
child hear the expressions "rich people" and "poor peo-
ple." Let them grow up thinking the best is to be happy
and good, and not that a great deal of money is the best
thing in the world.
For these reasons very little has ever been said before
my own little lad about the cost of articles. He has fived
in a happy little world, not knowing that there are either
rich or poor people, — only that people are good or bad.
236 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
About the time he was five years old I began to see that
he must be taught that his father earned the money to buy
his food, clothes, and toys, and that all things were not
showered down without working for them, in order that he
would take better care of his things. And, moreover, he
was only too willing to give away any plaything which
some other little playfellow chose to ask for. Naturally
generous, he seemed to think it the easiest matter in the
world to replace a favorite toy.
Then the puppy came to my aid.
A friend offered to give him a puppy, and I said he
could accept it if he were willing to take care of it and save
his pennies to pay the dog tax with. Then of course I had
to tell him in as simple a way as I could what taxation
meant.
He was devotion itself to the puppy, and not without a
pang, I am sure (it is such a delight to a child to spend a
penny, choosing from a long shelf fuH of pretty things), he
put away the pennies to pay his dog tax. It was his dog,
and he seemed to realize that its welfare depended on him.
One day when we were out driving we met a most
charming performing bear. He immediately wanted me to
get one for him.
"If you had a bear," said I, "could you take care of it?"
"Oh, yes," said he; "it could sleep in the barn with
Phyllis; but oh, Mamma, do they have to pay taxes on
bears?"
"I suppose they do," I replied. And then he sat silent,
thinking. I was waiting for his next thought about the bear.
After some time he gave a sigh, and said: "Well,
Mamma, let's not get a bear; for you know a bear is bigger
than a dog; so the tax would be bigger, and I don't feel
like paying any more taxes."
A few weeks later we went to call on a friend who had
a loyely new baby.
He admired the baby very much, and wished to take it
home with him. But while there he came to me and said,
"Mamma, do they have to pay taxes on babies?"
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 237
"No, dear," said I; "because they are a gift from God."
That evening when I put him to bed I told him that
when God gives us anything — a new baby, beautiful sun-
shine, a sky full of stars, or a happy day — we do not have
to pay a money tax for it, only be happy and enjoy it; but
that when we bought anything from a man, such as a horse,
a house, or a dog, we had to be taxed for it.
Since his experience with his dog he has taken better
care of his playthings. Before that he had sometimes been
very careless about leaving his velocipede, a ball, or train
of cars out in the yard; and I had felt that he was getting
old enough to have considerable care, at least of his own
playthings. He was very proud of the fact that he was the
chief support of the dog, very watchful to see that the best
bones were saved for his dogship, and anxious that he
should be happy in his new home. Anyone who has ever
taken care of a young puppy will know how many times I
had to get up in the night and warm milk for it in its first
few lonely nights away from its mother. Its little master
woke up one night and asked me what I was out of bed for.
"Oh," said I, "your dog is crying, and I didn't want to
call you, because I want you to have a good sleep."
The next day I heard him saying to a little playfellow,
"I tell you what, my mother she's good. She gets up in
the night and gets milk for Columbus, my puppy, and don't
make me do it 'cause she wants me to sleep and be nice
and rested in the morning."
Not only is he more careful, but since our talk about
taxes I think he more than ever appreciates the gifts of
his heavenly Father which are given so freely. — Nellie
Nelson Amsden.
SOME LESSONS FROM MOTHER NATURE.
Just think how beautiful this world must seem to little
children! As they go about, everything is so new, so won-
derful, so attractive! Their inquiring, investigating minds
lead them here, there, and everywhere that their little feet
can carry them, and each object met with presents to them
238 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
a new phase of life. Thoughtful parents and teachers will
realize that these early impressions should not be dulled,
but strengthened, as the years come and go. Each bird,
flower, or even a stone, should be to the childish minds a
living thought which speaks of the loving Father who for a
wise purpose has created all things.
It is possible for children to gain as much pleasure from
simple weeds picked by the wayside as does my Lady
Croesus from her conservatory filled with the rarest orchids.
To them the mayweed may be introduced as first cousin to
the garden daisy, and, as such, be lifted from the common-
place to an idealized plane of life. It may speak to them a
cheery "Good morning," and tell man)- a story of the hap-
penings in its corner of the world. It may tell how in the
darkness it drank in the drops of dew which the cooling
night air sent to its relief; of the bees and birds and butter-
flies that flitted above it in the morning sun; of the songs
of merry children as they passed it by on their way to
school; and of the whole joy and delight of summer.
Down in the meadow or out on the lawn the clover
leaves give to observing little ones an object lesson which
is well worth noting. As night comes on the twin leaflets
nestle lovingly together, while the upper one broods pro-
tectingly over them through all the chilly hours till the
dawn. An inspiration will thereby lead Nellie and Katie
and Fred to care more tenderly for those who are yoiinger
than they.
The leaves dancing upon the trees, or gayly fluttering
downward at the will of the autumn wind, have manifold
lessons to unfold. Those of the springtime tell of their
long winter's sleep as buds wrapped up snug and warm.
They tell, besides, of the fairy color-bearers — red, blue,
orange, yellow, green, violet, and deep indigo — which the
sun sends to the earth, and how each leaf keeps all of these,
but the green, to nourish and sustain its life. The leaves of
September and October, both the bright-hued and the
brown, as they cover the earth from the frost, speak of the
providence by which even so helpless a thing as a leaf is
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. • 239
enfolded; and the children will realize that the}', more than
all else in the universe, are held in that same loving pro-
tection.
To most bo\'s, and some girls, too, a stone is only a
missile, to be aimed at the first convenient object. When,
however, they learn its marvelous history, — how its birth-
time dates back to that long, long ago when this world of
ours was newly created; that it was not formed by chance,
but with wise foresight for the needs of man, — it becomes
to them a thing of wonder and reverence. Gathering the
pebbles, bits of quartz and jasper, which they find along the
way, may thus direct the thoughts of the children toward
the Infinite, and they may be led to "Look from Nature, up
to Nature's God." — M. H.Jciinijigs.
REASONS WHY CHILDREN ARE NOT SENT TO KINDERGARTEN.
There are many most excellent reasons why the children
of approving parents are not sent to the kindergarten.
One father says, "There is none in the neighborhood. I'd
rather have my child in one than not, and would rather pay
any amount of money to ha\'e him there, than see him toted
about forever by nurse Annie."
If you have the money and the inclination, why not start
the movement and can\'ass the field for a new kindergarten?
You could open one in your own dining room. Limit the
children, if you desire, to a select few; or better still, open
a free class in the neighborhood, where a few stray street
children could participate with your boy.
Another family prefer not to send their children to the
kindergarten in the next block, because of the kind of chil-
dren who attend, and because the kindergartner herself
does not always use good grammar.
To be sure, the little world that goes its rounds in this
kindergarten is made up of various temperaments. But this
"new education" claims as its chief aim that of preparing
the child for life; not Robinson Crusoe alone on an island,
but citizens and brethren together. The business world will
not always be grammatical, but it will be found largely gen-
240 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ial and kindly. It will be of more importance in those later
years if your boys and girls have the power to detect a
generous, kindly soul, than to catch the grammatical flaws
of their neighbors' language.
"Why do you not send your children of four and a half
years to our kindergarten?" was recently asked of two
mothers, when the autumn term opened. Both mothers
were conscientious in devoting much time to their children;
both had lofty ideals, and gave evidence of wishing to do
the verybest in their power for these babes. To the ques-
tion each gave, in substance, the same answer:
"My child has an over-developed mind now. She had
spasms the other day, and I know the kindergarten would
be very bad for her; it is so taxing."
The kindergartner answered: "Your child needs the
very thing you are withholding. She needs avenues of ex-
pression, and less watching. She is suffering for want of
occasions to put outside her overcrowded self. Instead of
them, you teach her letters and show her books until she is
weary. Give her a handful of clay for half an hour, or leave
her alone at the sand table; give her the blocks and the
quiet work hour, or the games, so full of natural action, and
you cannot fail to have a normal, happy child."
The well-meaning ■ mother answered: "She has daily
exercise with the nurse, who takes her for a long walk
every day, and I tend to her letters myself."
"The nurse at best is a poor substitute for the com-
panionship of other children of her own age; and the walk,
with its many restrictions, par convoiicncc, will not take the
place of happy games, which supply not only the body but
also the heart and soul with truer energy and activity."
One last and always pathetic reason for not sending the
children to kindergarten is that justifiable one of hundreds
of earnest, intelligent parents, who want but cannot afford
it. In far Arizona there is a home, many miles from such a
luxury as a kindergarten. The boy has been told all about
it, and the parents have read and studied eagerly to provide
him with as much as possible of the spirit of it.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT, 24I
The happiest Christmas of the boy's life was over his
Christmas tree, made of fringed green tissue paper and dec-
orated with his own handiwork. All of the non-essentials
were lacking, — even the candles; but there were the essen-
tials of cooperation between parents and child, and unmeas-
ured faith in childish activity. — B. H.
WHAT BOOKS WILL HELP ME?
" Kindergarten Literature Co. — I come for advice. I am a mother
with three children; the oldest has gone to school quite awhile, but I
have one seven and one four, that I very much desire to teach at home,
well knowing that it is not all of education to learn to read, write,
figure, etc. We live in the country, and cannot have a kindergartner.
I want to know what books I can get that would give me the proper
help in the first steps of the work. I am a very earnest worker in all
that lifts humanity higher, and well know when is the time to begin.
Respectfully.— yl/ri-. L. B. S., Denver."
There is no one book which will give you instruction in
kindergarten methods. The fundamental study of this
natural education is that of the child. When you have
learned to detect the needs and outreachings of your child,
then you may be able to apply the methods of paper folding
or block building to his needs. For a very young child
and a young mother I would recommend the book called
"The Nursery Finger Plays." Do not use it merely as a
picture book, but learn the nature stories there put into
rhyme, and sing or say them with the child. This book
embodies the facts of the kindergarten work, even though
you may not know these facts. The stories appeal to nor-
mal children, and in time they learn to work out the little
plays with feeling and meaning.
If you have time to study deeper into the work, and if
you must choose one of two things, take the Kinder-
garten Magazine, which will give you the general pur-
poses of the work, and many practical hints for daily study,
not of the system, but of your child. Again, Froebel's own
book of Mother-Plays, as interpreted and made practical,
will lead you on into the study of yourself as well as the
child. Miss Elizabeth Harrison's book of "Child Nature"
242 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
is a volume of forceful and practical studies of the child,
from the standpoint of this book. The "Finger Plays"
first mentioned will take the place of a song book as well,
as the baby will appreciate the rhythm and gesture long
before the words of the story. Send for the new catalogue
of kindergarten literature issued recently by the Kindergar-
ten Literature Company, and you will find many valuable
and discriminating points on this subject of the right books.
THE PLAY OF THE PIGEON HOUSE.
Little folks always find this story attractive, and it is a
pretty sight to see the chubby fingers interlaced or flutter-
ing in the air as do the birds.
The exercise is begun by placing the backs of the hands
together and interlacing the fingers, while the thumbs just
touch the table. The latter are the father and mother
pigeons, the children will imagine, and the eight fingers are
their children.
Now come a few words about the dangers to which birds
— especially very young ones — are exposed, and then the
pigeon house, with the parents on guard near the door, is
closed up snug and tight.
With the words,
" I open now my pigeon house,"
the birds begin to appear; and as the little ones recite,
" Out fly the pigeons once more let loose,"
the fingers flutter gayly, sailing higher and higher with the
succeeding lines of the stanza:
"Away to the broad green fields tliey fly;
They pass the day right merrily;
But when they come home to rest at night" —
with this line the bird-like fingers flutter slowly down-
ward—
"Again I close my pigeon house tight;"
when lo! all the birdies are once more safe at home. — M.
H. J.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT.
243
GOOD NIGHT.
The angels never say "good night,"
For no night comes in Paradise;
And lilies never close their eyes.
The angels smile, and say "God's light,"
Instead of saying our "good night."
And we shall say what angels do.
When Heaven's gate God leads us through;
Till then — "Good night."
Downward sinks the setting sun;
Soft the evening shadows fall;
Light is flying,
Day is dying.
Darkness stealeth over all.
Good night. —M. H. J.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
"The Center of the Sphere " (a pamphlet, price 25 cents). This is
the title of a lecture by Mrs. Mary H. Peabody, which has just been
printed by the young ladies for whom it was originally written. The
paper deals with the phrase as an illustration of natural law traced to
its fulfillment in the processes of human life; as a symbolism which is
based upon nature and finds its outcome in society. The sphere is
studied in nature, as the form of individual force. Its divisions are
shown to be the result of force working from within, producing three
exact planes, and these, as the basis of geometric measurement, are con-
sidered as representative of the measurement and unfolding of human
character. Mrs. Peabody says: "The three planes are these: the verti-
cal, which indicates the connection of the life of any created form with
that of the Infinite; the horizontal, which defines the great circle of
nature; and that third and last plane, which represents the return of
life from nature to God, — the plane of humanity, which mathematically,
as from front to back, humanly, from man to man, cuts through the
other two at their own meeting place, the center of the sphere." From
this basis of mathematics the law of the relationship of the parts to the
whole is followed, from nature into society. "The lesson that is given
at the center of the sphere is progress, balance of parts, the control of
the outside from within." "All principles are taught by means of form,
for forms of nature are illustrations of law." The paper, dealing in this
way with the first form of the kindergarten, leads from babyhood to
manhood, and shows " the eternal verity " of the laws of life, which,
under Froebel, have become the first laws of education. A journalist
has said of this pamphlet, " It is a paper that any intelligent man would
like to read and think about." Whatever can lead intelligent people to
consider the real idea of the kindergarten must be welcome to those
who already know it and labor for its progress. The pamphlet can be
secured of the Kindergarten Literature Co. by return mail.
"In the Child's World," by Emilie Poulsson, author of "Finger
Plays," is at last upon the market. It is illustrated by L. J. Bridgman,
and arranged as a series of morning talks and stories for a full year.
It is substantial and attractive, being a gift book as well as a text-book.
Mothers and kindergartners will welcome a new book from the pen
of Miss Poulsson, and this one in particular they have been awaiting
for over a year. It is one of the few kindergarten books that are bound
to live forever, since it is not a recording of developing methods, nor a
set program of work, but a pure child's storybook with scientific truth
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. 245
and deep purposes behind every line. The book is listed at $2, but in
reality this price is low when the real value and quality of each par-
ticular is estimated.
"Paper and Scissors in the Schoolroom" is a paper-covered hand-
book, compassing a practical and systematic course in paper folding
and cutting for all grades in the public as well as private schools. The
author is Miss Emily A. Weaver; publishers, Milton Bradley Co. The
book takes up a progressive plan of work, giving full details and illus-
trations. Price 25 cts.
"The Classic Myths in English Literature " is a new work, though
nominally based upon Bulfinch's "Age of Fable," by Professor CM.
Gayley. It is destined to a wide-reaching usefulness as a school manual.
A knowledge of Greek fable can perhaps be acquired only through a
familiarity at first hand with the antique; but since few can expect to
attain to this, an attractive survey of the whole field, from a literary
rather than a learned point of view, with constant indication of the
sources of every myth, is of the highest value and importance. Price
S1.50.
" Song Stories for the Kindergarten," by the Misses Hill, of Louis-
ville, is the latest and newest collection of exquisite songs for every day
in the year. It is written and adapted by practical kindergartners, is
tested by actual use in kindergarten, is a dainty book, which will add to
the home library much of the kindergarten spirit, and enlarge to kin-
dergartners their choice of adaptable songs. See review in Practice
Department of this number, with song entitled "Bye Baby Bye."
FIELD NOTES.
The A'i/ider^ar/en Growth in So/ne Foj-cigii Lands. — The Swiss Kin-
dergarten Verein, of which Herr M. C. Kiittel is president, holds its
meetings but once in two years. At the last meeting, held at Lucerne,
in September, 1892, the following topics were discussed: i. Will a reg-
ular visit of the different kindergartens by members of the general
assembly be an incentive to kindergartners? 2. Shall the general
association furnish material aid to needy kindergartens? 3. Would
it not be advisable to assign to the object lesson a much more promi-
nent place in our curriculum, and thus replace exciting games and the
more difficult and exhausting occupations? 4. To what extent are
religious influences admissible in the kindergarten? This assembly has
the following special aim before it: the spread of the kindergarten
work throughout Switzerland, by means of literature and lectures, by
the establishing of kindergartens, and by urging the state to establish
public kindergartens. It also hopes to gain the union and cooperation
of kindergartners and those interested in the work.
The first kindergarten in Holland was organized at Sommelsdyk, in
1859, by Elise Von Calcar. At present the kindergarten is partially
instructed at the female normal schools of Amsterdam and Rotterdam,
while at Leiden' there is a professional training school for " Froebel-
teachers." This work has permeated the infant schools of Holland, and
instituted free playgrounds for the children. Madam Von Calcar her-
self has written books on the following subjects: The Hope of the
Future for Teachers; Froebel Handwork; The Little Workmen; Froe-
bel Method of Harmonious Development; Make the Children Happy —
a handbook for kindergartners; How Fr. Froebel Became an Educator,
and What the Children Taught Him. She is at present writing the life
of Bertha Von Marenholtz, who was so long a companion to Froebel in
his work. She writes, with reference to the partial practice of the kin-
dergarten: "My great sorrow is the imperfect understanding and the
voluntary mutilation of a splendid whole, which only can reach its end
if it is taken and applied as a whole, but must give only small advan-
tage and imperfect results if it is broken up into fragments."
A unique private educational institute was organized in 1880 in
Athens, Greece, by Catherine Lascarida, who was and still is a devoted
disciple of Froebel. This school, called HcUcnlkon Parthenagogion,
was on the Froebel plan, every grade of work being permeated by this
spirit. The mistress of the school has also trained kindergartners who
still conduct private kindergartens, and has written a Greek treatise on
Froebel, besides several readers and song books. She writes, under the
FIELD NOTES. 24/
date of April 12: "Unhappily my countrymen, having been so many
centuries under the yoke of barbarian tyrants, are not yet sufficiently
prepared to acknowledge the benefits of this perfect system; nor had I
means to convince them of its perfection and usefulness, as this could
only be done by a general reform of our present imperfect school
system."
The Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada, has sixty-six public
kindergartens, which accommodate 6,375 children, with an average
attendance of 3,287. Toronto has twenty-seven of these infant schools,
with seventy-six trained kindergartners in charge.
The kindergarten is made the foundation of the normal schools of
the Argentine Republic, and the principles of Froebel are a regular
department of the study of pedagogy.
All active kindergartners should endeavor this year to become
actively connected with the Kindergarten Literature Company as stock-
holders. Shares are still available, and with this year's remarkable
growth behind us we can foretell the prosperity of this company with
surety. Write if you think you will be able to take one or several
shares, with which a small installment can be held for future payment.
The work of this company has done more during the past summer
to spread the kindergarten gospel that that of any one organized body;
and as it is a kindergarten motto that all reform should be put on a self-
sustaining basis instead of a charitable one, we are happy to report that
it is being demonstrated beyond our hope, in the widespread returns
that we are now receiving in valuable support and business growth.
The policy of this company will ever keep it as a strong supporter of
each and every enterprise and branch of the great cause, and as a care-
ful and guarded critic of the movement going on in the world at large
in the acceptance by general progress for the Froebelian ideal in edu-
cation. And above all, this movement deserves whole-hearted and
active support from every earnest lover of the kindergarten.
The California Froebel Society held its regular monthly meeting at
64 Silver street, on Friday, October 6, 1893. The meeting was called to
order by Mrs. Uohrmann, president /rc> teni. Minutes of the preceding
meeting were read and approved. The sad news of the death of Mrs.
Clara Beeson Hubbard was received, and it was unanimously resolved
by the society to forward resolutions of condolence to the members of
her family. A committee was appointed to draft resolutions, composed
of the following ladies: Mrs. Dohrmann, Mrs. S. Johnson, Miss Gris-
wold, and Miss M. Bullock. The committee' presented the following
resolution, which was adopted:
"Resolved — With heartfelt and sincere regret were the tidings of the
demise of the late Mrs. Clara Beeson Hubbard, of St. Louis, received by
the members of the California Froebel Society, at their monthly meeting,
Vol. 6-16 '
248 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
held Friday, October 6, 1893. California mourns, with St. Louis, the loss
of so active and untiring a laborer in the kindergarten cause; and it was
unanimously resolved that the deep and heartfelt sympathy of the Cali-
fornia teachers be hereby tendered to the members of her family in
their great bereavement, hoping that the thought that she has gone to
join Him in unity with whom she ever strove to live, may bring con-
solation to their broken hearts. She who endeared herself so to little
ones by her sweet songs and games, has gone to join her voice to the
heavenly hosts. Peace to her ashes! Her memory will ever be kept in
loving remembrance, and her noble works live after her."
It was also resolved to set apart a special afternoon to be devoted to
a talk to the children, commemorative of Mrs. Hubbard, impressing
them with what she did for them, how patient she had been through the
long years of suffering, and how her noble, unselfish life endeared her
not only to children, but to all good men and women. After the busi-
ness meeting, a pleasant afternoon was spent in play, the subject for the
day being "General Playday: Mother-play in this connection." The
cabinet chosen for the afternoon consisted of the following: Miss M.
Gamble, Miss H. Eastman, and Miss Chase. The games and songs
consisted of the following: The Blacksmith, Rain Song, Clock Song,
Cart-wheel Song, Ring Song, and The Pendulum. Mrs. Eisner, Mrs.
Plise, Miss Howard, Miss K. Knowlton, and Miss Duisenberg were
chosen to serve on the November program, the subject of which is,
"Cooperation of Kindergartner and Mother, Mothers' Meetings, Home
Visiting." — Martha L. Bullock, Rec. Sec.
The congress of the Evangelical Alliance held its sessions in Chi-
cago during the week of October 10-15. One section was devoted to
the practical consideration of the primary Sunday school, from the kin-
dergarten standpoint. This provision in itself betokens progress and
practical efforts to reach children's needs, not merely to teach creeds.
The chairman of this session was Mrs. E. W. Blatchford, of the Chicago
Froebel Association, assisted by the following speakers: Miss Stella
Wood, Miss Bertha Payne, Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, all of Chicago; Miss
Grace Dodge and Rev. Mrs. Tyndall, of New York City; Mrs. Mary
H. Peabody, of Chicago; Miss Amalie Hofer, of the Kindergarten
Magazine. The suggestions most profitably put forth may be con-
densed as follows: Religion should never be taught as a dogma to a
little child; it should ever be a growth from the natural to the spiritual.
The truths of nature should not be shut out from the truths of the Bible.
Simple, clear statements of these truths will be understood by children.
Idiomatic expressions should be made plain to the child. Hymns and
songs must be cleared of unmeaning words. The work done by
apprenticed hands is no more acceptable in Sunday-school teaching
than in the kindergarten. The child must be studied more. Better no
Sunday school than one which gives out false impressions. It is impos-
FIELD NOTES. 249
sible to give the infant class the regular international lessons; these
must be administered according to the growth of the child. Kinder-
garten materials will not create the kindergarten spirit, nor interpret
the truth back of things, without a true kindergartner to present them.
A most comprehensive paper on the subject was read by Miss Payne,
in which she clearly set forth Froebel's interpretations of religious
teaching. Such discussions foretell more rational methods in infant-
class work.
Mr. Henry Wood has recently written an essay on "The Unity of
Diversity," which is full of meat for kindergartners. It appeared in the
October number of the new Journal of Realistic Idealism. The open-
ing paragraph is as follows: "The inspirational truth which is perme-
ating modern thought is the essential interrelation of all things. The
negative conditions which are so widely prevalent in human conscious-
ness are largely due to the lack of a discriminating sense of the num-
berless lines of mutual relationship. Emerson, the great intuitive phi-
losopher of modern times, voiced this sentiment in the simple words.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.
The law of unselfishness is so fundamental that it is written every-
where. Every leaf, twig, and branch informs us of dejiendence and
interdependence; and every organ of the physical body works unceas-
ingly, more for its neighbors than itself. Reciprocity is the all-prevail-
ing order. In all the varied phenomena of mind and matter nothing
stands alone. Selfishness, which is the negative of this universal posi-
tive, may be said to be the mainspring of all the woes of humanity.
One life permeates all things, and there is no corner of the universe too
remote to feel its heart-throb."
The Philadelphia branch of the I. K. U. held its first annual meet-
ing on October 3, in Association Hall. The reports read showed a
gratifying increase all along the line. Miss Mary Mumford, the re-
cording secretary, gave a most entertaining as well as encouraging ac-
count of the year's growth of the society, which now numbers one hun-
dred and sixty-five members. After the election of officers for the
ensuing year. Miss Anna W. Williams took us in spirit to the " White
City," and charmed her audience by her graphic pictures of the Fair as
she saw it. Especially interesting was her description of the kinder-
garten exhibits, culling, as she did, the best from them all; and after
listening to her account of the educational congress, she brought us so
completely in touch with the tone of the meeting that our regret at our
absence was greatly lessened. The marked success of the society is
principally due to the able management of our valued president. Miss
Constance Mackenzie. We also feel that we have cause for congrat-
ulation in the possession of a library, presented to the society by Miss
250 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Hallowell, and which is to be known as the "Anna Hallowell Library."
- — Jean C. Whittlesey, Cor. Sec.
The Pittsburg and Allegheny Free Kindergarten Association an-
nounces a full schedule for a two years' course of normal training, with
three kindergartens for the observation fields of the students, as well as
a course of twelve lessons for mothers. The following paragraph tells
of the plan of study on the subject of education: The history of educa-
tion will be given from the standpoint of the history of civilization, with
a course of reading, including such books as Quick's "Reformers,"
autobiography of Froebel, " Reminiscences of Froebel," "Education of
Man," Rousseau's " Emile," " Life and Work of Pestalozzi," and other
works on educational themes. There will also be given a course of
fifty lectures on psychology, with supplementary readings from Herbert
Spencer and Sully. Frequent essays upon the various phases of the
instruction and training of children, and abstracts of the books read,
will be required.
The Froebel Society of St. Louis held its first meeting of the season
September g, in the assembly room of the board of education. There
was a large attendance of kindergarten directors, who listened atten-
tively to a report of the president, Miss McCulloch, of the kindergarten
congress held at Chicago in July. The need for closer study of the
child, and broadest culture for the kindergartner, was stated to be the
vital points for successful results in the work. The annual election of
officers then took place, with the following result: President, Mary C.
McCulloch; vice president, Lena G. Shirley; recording secretary, An-
nie Harbaugh; corresponding secretary, Ella Lyon; treasurer, Irene F,
Wilson. — E. L., Sec'y Froebel Soc'y, St. Louis.
A COURSE of lectures on Goethe will begin the second week in Jan-
uary, 1894, at the Chicago Kindergarten College, 10 Van Buren street,
preparatory to the Literary Goethe School, which will be held the week
commencing February 20. Mr. Denton J. Snider, the director of this
course, has recently published a valuable series of live Studies on the
World's Fair, comprising "The Four Domes," "Organization of the
Fair," "State Buildings — Colonial," "State Buildings from East to
West," "The Greek Column," and a sixth which is now in press, on
" The Midway Plaisance." The latter can be supplied by the Kinder-
garten Literature Company.
The kindergarten of National City, Cal., is earning money in a
homely and practical way, for the decoration of its room. The chil-
dren, with the help of those in the primary department, and with occa-
sional assistance from an older brother or sister in the other depart-
ments, are doing the work of the janitor. Their first money earned in
this way went to buy a bust of Froebel, and the next to pay for putting
up and draping a shelf, from which he looks down upon his little sol-
FIELD NOTES. 2^1
diers. They have also bought a piano cover and music stand, and look
forward to tinting the walls of the room. The kindergartner is Mrs.
Prudence G. Brown.
The kindergarten of the Buffalo (N. Y.) state normal opened Sep-
tember II, with twenty-eight little folks, and eight young women in the
training class. Only graduates of good schools are admitted, and the
course is one year and a half. Miss L. S. Palmer is in charge of both
the kindergarten and the normal training class. The principal of this
normal school, Mr. James Cassety, has been cordially committed to the
kindergarten doctrine for many years, and it is no doubt the result of
his earnest effort which has brought about this opportunity for his
student-teachers to investigate the work in their home normal.
The following note, dated April, 1893, is from Sharada Saden, over
the signature, " Ramabai," addressed to the I. K. U.: " Yes, you may
put my name among the workers in the interest of spreading the kin-
dergarten system. We are getting on fairly well. My kindergarten
training class is doing nicely, and as soon as our new school building is
ready we hope to have a kindergarten for the children, where the newly
trained teachers will practice what they have learnt."
The seventieth birthday of the novelist, Miss Charlotte M. Yonge,
was celebrated by her many friends in rather an original way. All who
have enjoyed her books were invited to subscribe one shilling, and what
is of more importance, a sheet of paper on which was written their
criticism of her works, with their names signed below. These sheets
of paper, coming from all parts of the world, were bound and presented
to Miss Yonge, together with a purse.
The editors of the Kindergarten Magazine are addressing circu-
lar letters to all the live family papers, making a plea for better Christ-
mas reading to be bought for children. Many journalists became inter-
ested through our exhibit at the Children's Building during the summer,
and have returned home warmly championing the bringing of kinder-
garten literature to the general home circle. Great advances were
made during last summer's season.
The Grand Rapids Kindergarten Association closed a very success-
ful summer training class September i, and on September 11 the reg-
ular winter training school opened. The work now includes a three
years' course, and the students already number forty, eight of these
taking the third-year work. Other students will enter later, as they
can be received at any time during the year.
"Do YOU enjoy your school work?" was recently asked of an " en-
nuied" city teacher. "Oh, I dare say I do in a certain way; but I am
always glad to hear the gong at four o'clock." "How about your chil-
252 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
dren,— do they enjoy school?" "Oh, they can't wait until vacation
comes, they are so glad to have it all over!"
Mrs. M. L. Van Kirk edits the kindergarten department of the
//onse/io/^ jVe7vs, published at Philadelphia. It is known as "Mrs. S.
T. Rorer's Home Magazine." It is coming to be a frequent department
in home journals, — this of the kindergarten. Where should the kinder-
garten find place, if not in the home?
Don't fail to send five one-cent stamps and receive for yourself
and friends the beautiful Christmas catalogue of the Kindergarten
Literature Co. It will be fully illustrated with kindergarten authors,
many faces never having appeared before, and will give a special list of
children's Christmas books. It is in itself a valuable gift to a mother of
young children.
Froebel says: "Knowledge gained only through literary instruc-
tion, without contemporaneous personal experience, does not suffice to
make men capable of the self-government and self-restraint necessary
for true freedom." And again, " Formative activity makes each indi-
vidual know himself."
The school board of EI Paso, Tex., are deserving of much credit.
They have this year introduced the kindergarten into the public school,
El Paso being the first city in Texas to show such intelligence and
enterprise. The board also furnishes a room for a private kinder-
garten.
A PRIVATE kindergarten under the direction of Mrs. Underbill has
been opened in the private home of Mrs. Alice Bierhaus, at Vin-
cennes, Ind. Mrs. Bierhaus is one of those mothers whose conviction
that the kindergarten being good for her own children, all should
have it.
Several energetic training schools are pushing to get funds by
special means for the purchase of a kindergarten library. We are
making a good rate on a complete collection, and anyone interested may
correspond. See list on front pages of this issue, revised and annotated.
A select private school has recently been opened at 103 Pine
street, Chicago. Several inquiries have come to us for a kindergarten
in that district. We trust that such inquirers will note the excellent
kindergarten advantages offered here, with Miss Vaugn in charge.
Mrs. M. H. Barker, formerly of Buffalo, N. Y., is now director of
a kindergarten training school at Lincoln, Neb., including a large class
of the city public school teachers. We acknowledge a forceful paper
by Mrs. Barker in a recent copy of the N. JV. Journal of Education.
Miss Susan S. Harriman is principal of the Froebel school at
Providence, R. I., which was founded by Mrs. C. M. C. Alden. We are
FIELD NOTES. 253
in receipt of Mrs. Alden's card to the opening exercises of tier new
work at Los Angeles.
A CORDIAL letter from Miss Mary Lyschinska, of London, an-
nounces that she is translating a valuable paper prepared by Frau
Henrietta Schrader, of Berlin, for publication in the Kindergarten
Magazine.
Mrs. Louise Pollock Bush is opening a course of mothers' kin-
dergarten study classes at Seattle, Wash. She hopes to organize a
model kindergarten library for the use of all interested in this line of
study.
Miss Mary E. Burt, author of the "German Iliad" for children,
is one of the literary editors of the Ginn Publishing Co., Boston, Mass.,
as well as otherwise connected with educational pursuits in New York
city.
A Colorado school exhibit at the Columbian Exposition shows a
geography lesson objectified in an Indian camp, including noble red
men of all ages and conditions, following their historic occupations.
Mrs. Anna B. Ogden is principal of the Minneapolis Froebel Insti-
tute. Mrs. Ogden has been one of those inspired public school workers
who never fail to grow on into success amid earnest well-wishers.
A free kindergarten at Galveston, Tex., numbers forty pupils.
Miss Margaret Wakelee, of Galveston, is kindergartner in charge, and
she has three assistant?.
The Thomas Charles Co., of Chicago, has purchased the entire kin-
dergarten supply stock of the W. A. Olmsted school supply company
of the same city.
Mrs. Mary H. Peabody is prepared to make lecture engagements
before kindergarten normal classes or kindergarten clubs. See her card
in this issue.
The normal department of the Norwich (Conn.) Free Academy
opens a kindergarten training class with this year.
There were over 50,000 exhibitors in the art-manufacture depart-
ment of the Columbian Exposition.
Roman schoolboysr used a wax tablet and pointed stylus instead of
slate and pencil.
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
The Nickel Plate. — For the convenience of all our friends to and
from Chicago, we make the following important announcements con-
cerning the superior advantages of the Nickel Plate Road, having
found it agreeable beyond telling to have had these facts this summer
for the benefit of World's Fair guests who constantly came to us for
guidance and advice, and at a busy season when time was of necessity
cut short. The Nickel Plate Road goes-out from Chicago at 7.30 A. M.,
2.30 P. M., and at 9.30 P. M., giving all travelers between Buffalo
and Chicago a choice of hours, supremely convenient. We give
this information for the benefit of our traveling friends who are making
points between Buffalo and Chicago. On a direct through ticket this
road furnishes accommodations on all the important trains through
to New York city, and besides this, issues interchangeable mileage
books for prominent points in Michigan, Ohio, etc. To Chicago parties
coming and going it is an important item of information that all
through trains stop at Twenty-second street and corner of Clark for
the convenience of South Side residents, saving the troublesome trip
across town to distant stations. We would advise all who have any idea
of traveling to or from Chicago, east, to send to T. Y. Calahan, igg Clark
street, Chicago, for full information concerning connections and con-
veniences on the Nickel Plate Road.
We take great pleasure in editorially expressing our deep apprecia-
tion of the courtesies received during the past busy summer at the
hands of the officials of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad
Co. Handling as it does the bulk of the business done in the great
Northwest, it has been our experience, and the ringing word of our
visiting friends from the West, that in spite of the crowds everywhere,
the comforts and attentions over this road, have been unparalleled. We
recommend it to all going west from Chicago this winter.
Foreign Subscriptions. — On all subscriptions outside of the States,
British Columbia, Canada, and Mexico, add forty cents (40 cents) for
postage, save in case of South Africa, outside of the postal union, which
amounts to 80 cents extra on the year's numbers. On Child-Garden the
rate of postage is 25 cents per year; on foreign subscriptions and to
South Africa, 50 cents.
Always. — Our readers who change their addresses should imme-
diately notify us of same and save the return of their mail to us. State
both the new and the old location. It saves time and trouble.
Always. — Subscriptions are stopped on expiration, the last number
being marked, "With this number your subscription expires," and a
return subscription blank inclosed.
PUBLISHERS NOTES. 255
Mrs. E. A. Blaker, of Indianapolis, has put into the market a beau-
tiful Froebel spoon (which please find notice elsewhere). She offers in-
ducements to kindergarten associations to sell it to make money for
their own work. We have not yet seen the spoon, but from the sketch
would judge it to be quite artistic in effect.
Wanted. — The following back numbers of Kindergarten Maga-
zine in exchange for any other number you want in Vols. II, III, IV, or
V, or for books: Vol. I, Nos. 3, 4, and 9; Vol. II, Nos. 1,8, and 13; Vol. Ill,
No. 8. Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Chicago.
Send in your orders early for bound volumes of the Child-Cafdeti
for 1892-93. There will be a limited number only, and the holiday trade
is already beginning to engage them. Price $2.00. We will bind back
numbers handsomely in cloth for anyone sending their files, for $1.00.
Many training schools are making engagements for next year's
special lectures through the Kindergarten Literature Co. We are in
correspondence with many excellent Kindergarten specialists in color,
form, music, primary methods, literature, art, etc.
Child-Garden Samples. — Send in lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
Remember some child's birthday with a gift of Child-Garden, only $1
per year.
Always — Send your subscription made payable to the Kindergarten
Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago, 111., either by money order,
express order, postal note, or draft. (No foreign stamps received.)
Portraits of Froebel. — Fine head of Froebel; also Washington, Lin-
coln, and Franklin; on fine boards, 6 cents each, or ten for 50 cents.
Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago.
(Size 6x8 inches.)
All inquiries concerning training schools, supplies, literature, song
books, lectures, trained Kindergartners, etc., will be freely answered by
the Kindergarten Literature Co. *
Back numbers from February, 1889, to date, except issues of May
and December, 1889, May 1890, and April, 1891, can be had to complete
your files; price 25 cents each.
Send for our complete catalogue of choice Kindergarten literature;
also give us lists of teachers and mothers who wish information con-
cerning the best reading.
Bound VoIumes.^=^Vols. IV and V, handsomely bound in cloth, giv-
ing the full year's work in compact shape, each $3.
Lost time is money lost. Time saved is money saved. Time and
money can be saved by using the Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed
Milk in your recipes for Custards, Puddings, and Sauces. Try it and
be convinced. Grocers and Druggists.
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elementary features of the Prang Course of Instruction in Color.
The Standards of Color presented are reliable for educational purposes, having been
adopted after long study of the theory, and wide experience in the actual use of Color, as
well as after conference with leading artists and colorists in this country and abroad.
Each Normal Color is supplemented, on the one side by two tints making a gradual
approach toward the light, and on the other side by two shades approaching the dark, thus
producing a scale of five tones for each color. Each Normal, Tint, and Shade has been
considered not merely m itself, but also in its relations to the monochrome scale of which
it is a part, and to the corresponding scales of other Colors.
These papers are cut in various shapes and sizes, and put up in packages ready for
School use.
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more than twenty years, THE ART MOVEMENT in America.
Send for New Catalogue of TEXT BOOKS and EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS.
Address:
THE PRANG EDUCATIONAL COMPANY,
BOSTON. NEW YORK. CHICAGO.
WM. S. MACK, WESTERN MANAGER, 151 WABASH AVE,
For rates and for FROEBEL SOUVENIR SPOON
special terms to
Kindergarien
Training Teach-
ers, to Superin- y^|A
tendents of Free ''^^^'
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and to Free Kin-
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KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.— DECEMBER, 1893.— No. 4.
THE PLACE OF "ADMIRATION, HOPE, AND LOVE "
IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.
T. C. HORSFALL.
(Mr.Horsfall, Director of the Art Museum of Manchester, Eng., pre-
sented this paper on the Manchester experiments, to the Art and Manual
Education Congress held at Chicago in July.)
PROBABLY most of the per.sons who have given
much thought to the subject of education agree in
believing that the object which ought chiefly to be
sought in elementary schools is the making boys
and girls who pass through them into good and useful men
and women; that consequently, in the schools we ought to
give boys and girls the kinds of knowledge, and evoke in
them the modes of feeling and thought, and the habits of
life, in which we believe the goodness and usefulness of men
and women who are good and useful to consist; and further,
that if there be not time to give or evoke all these kinds of
knowledge and modes of feeling, thought, and habits of
life, preference in the allotment of the time at command
should be given to those of the essential conditions of
goodness and usefulness which experience shows that most
children cannot, or do not, gain for themselves or by help
of their parents; while less time should be given to those
conditions which, though essential, experience has shown
that children can obtain elsewhere than at school.
But though most people who have thought about educa-
tion would, if this proposition were put before them, say
that it is true, the management and curriculum of elemen-
tary schools would be very different from those of any
elementary schools known to me, if the truth of the propo-
sition were accepted by educational authorities.
258' THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
For a couple of my twenty minutes let us look at the life
of the men and women whom we know to be good and use-
ful, and see in what their goodness and usefulness consist,
and what relation exists between the qualities and habits in
which we find it to consist and the training given in our
elementary schools.
Do all the people we are examining show great achieve-
ment in respect of the "three R's"? Do they all spell
well, write rapidly a legible hand, speak grammatically,
do sums quickly and correctly? We find that many of the
people whom we know to be keeping the communities of
which they form part from corruption, do not differ from
the rest of the world in respect of knowledge of this kind;
that many of the best people say, " Between you and I,"
spell the word "traveler" with one / in England and with
two /'s in America, write a hand which drives their friends
wild, and make many mistakes in arithmetic; and we find,
too, that there is no more direct connection between their
goodness and usefulness and any other subject taught in
elementary schools, than exists between the "three R's "and
their good qualities.
Further, though most people probably think that the
great object of the training given in elementary schools is
the gaining of the power to earn an honest livelihood, we
find that the excellent persons in question do not and could
not all of them carii an honest livelihood, and that while
many of them are very poor, not a few of them are and
always have been rich, having inherited the money by
which they live, from their parents. On the other hand,
we find that they all most strongly desire, if not to ear7i
an honest livelihood, to live honest and useful lives; and
that though some of them, if deprived of the means they
now possess, would very likely starve, they would all then,
at least, try hard to earn an honest livelihood.
Further, we see that all these excellent persons have
settled habits of doing right things, and therefore are
not exposed to strong temptations to do wrong things.
When we try to find out why their lives go rightly, we find
"ADMIRATION, HOPE, AND LOVE. 259
that of these people it is certainly true that they live by
admiration, hope, and love, and that their lives are good and
useful because they are molded by admiration and love of
things which are really admirable and lovable. If we seek
to get clear ideas respecting the nature of the objects of
the admiration and love which keep their lives wholesome,
as we must do if we are to be successful reformers of
elementary education, we find that all the kinds of love and
admiration which decide what shall be the general tenor of
their life, in what relation they will try to stand with their
fellow creatures, what shall be the occupations of their
leisure time, fall into two great classes, one the class of
studies of and interests in that which we call Nature, — inter-
est in botany, geology, astronomy, and the other kinds of
study of nature, — and in the kinds of art which represent
nature; and the other, the class of studies of and inter-
ests in man, — interest in his feelings, his thoughts, his ac-
tion and passion now and in the past.
In order to gain right views respecting the education of
boys and girls either of the poorest, the richest, or any
intermediate class, it is absolutely necessary to grasp the
unquestionable truth that, apart from religion, all the
interests which keep human life in right courses belong to
one or other of these two classes; that no human being can
live a healthy life unless he have admiration and love either
of nature or of the best feelings, thoughts, and actions of
man. Further, it is necessary to grasp this other truth, that
without much admiration and love of nature, it is impossi-
ble to gain real knowledge, and therefore true admiration
and love, of what is noblest in man. For all the men of
finest heart and brain have been deeply influenced by
admiration of nature, and it is of course quite impossible
to understand and be helped by the expression of their
feeling and thought, unless we possess knowledge of and
interest in the things which evoked the feeling and thought.
A great picture of landscape, a great poem, or even a
book of travels, written by a man who loved nature, hardly
exists for those who do not themselves know nature. If,
260 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
then, the chief function of elementary schools should be to
help to make children become good and useful men and
women, whatever else be omitted from the curriculum,
every child ought to be made to know that a good and
useful life is possible, by being made familiarly acquainted
with some very interesting good and useful lives; and
unless it is found that elsewhere than in school most
children gain the kinds of knowledge needed to enable
them to share the thoughts, the feelings, and the habits of
life of good and useful people, they ought to be helped to
gain those kinds of knowledge at school.
It is certainly very desirable to make school help chil-
dren to gain the power to earn their living; but it is incom-
parably more important that it shall make them desire that
the "living" they gain shall be used for the maintenance of
a good and useful life. Happily, any successful attempt
to gain the more important object involves the use of the
means which are best adapted for gaining the less im-
portant.
There is much evidence to show that many children — I
fear I may truly say ynost town children — at present fail to
gain, out of school, the kinds of knowledge needed to
enable them to share the admiration and love by which
alone life can be kept healthy. Twenty years ago an
attempt to ascertain the real nature of the contents of the
minds of children living in a large town was very carefully
made in Boston. Of the report of the investigation, Dr.
Charles Roberts gave a summary in the London Journal
of Education, of March, 1885. It was found that ■]'] per
cent, of the children, who were all at school, and whose ages
ranged from four to eight years, had never seen a crow, 65.5
per cent, an ant, 57.5 per cent, a sparrow, 50 per cent, a
frog, 20.5 a butterfly; 91.5 per cent, did not know an elm
tree, 83 per cent, a maple, 66 per cent, blackberries grow-
ing; 63 per cent, had never planted a seed; 61 per cent, did
not know growing potatoes, 55.5 per cent, growing butter-
cups, and 21 per cent, growing apples; 75.5 per cent, did
not know what season of the year it was; 65 per cent, had
. "ADMIRATION, HOPE, AND LOVE." 26 1
never seen a rainbow; 93.4 per cent, did not know that
leather things come from animals, 89 per cent, what flour is
made of, and 50.5 per cent, the origin of butter.
Two pieces of evidence will suffice to prove that a large
proportion of the children who live in the large towns in
England suffer from the same kind of ignorance. A few
years ago Mr. Oakley, the chief inspector of schools in the
Manchester district, found in a school in Manchester a
whole class of children who did not know what a bee is
like or where it is to be found, and in another school in
Manchester, a class of about twenty boys in the sixth
standard, of whom only four had ever seen a skylark. The
children who are growing up in towns in ignorance of all
such things as flowers and trees and birds, are ignorant also
of all kinds of human work made interesting by beauty of
form or color; and the place in their hearts and minds
which ought to be filled by feelings and thoughts given by
beautiful things of nature and by beautiful products of
human skill, is filled by thoughts and feelings given by the
grimy surroundings of small, gloomy houses.
Experience has proved that a large proportion of the
persons who have reached the age of thirteen, ignorant of
reading, writing, and arithmetic, but have before that age
acquired a desire to live rightly, have after that age learned
as much of reading, writing, and arithmetic as they needed
to enable them to live good and useful lives. But experi-
ence has also proved that the persons who reach the age of
thirteen without feeling admiration and love of admirable
and lovable things, seldom make good that defect in after
life, however much knowledge they may have gained in
childhood of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and are com-
pelled to live comparatively empty and useless lives,
exposed to grave risk from the temptations of the senses.
It cannot, therefore, be doubted that the all-important
function of elementary schools is not the teaching of the
"three R's," but is the creation, in children, of admiration
and love of admirable and lovable persons and things.
Before I speak of some of the means by which this
262 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
terrible ignorance can be removed and children be enabled
to gain the kinds of knowledge needed to feed their hearts
and brains with wholesome thought and feeling, let me
speak very briefly of one set of instruments by which the
ignorance cannot be removed. It cannot be removed' by
zvords alone. It is desirable to say this, because, in England
at least, the most firmly established part of our system of
education is based on belief in the value of the meaningless
ivord.
Though all intelligent teachers know it, it has long
been overlooked by the controllers of educational systems,
that English words are as incomprehensible to English
children who hear or read them, if the children do not know
the things they name, as they would be if they were Hebrew
words. A teacher who knows the things can give his
pupils some knowledge of part of the meaning which the
words have for him; but if both teacher and taught are
ignorant of the things, — and many teachers now are town
children grown up, — the words are valueless to all but that
very small number of children who are incited by hearing
a word to desire to know the thing it refers to. The most
effective way to give children knowledge of admirable
things is of course, as all teachers know, to take the children
to the places where the things can be seen to the greatest
advantage; to take children, for instance, into the beautiful
country is the best way of giving them vital knowledge of
flowers, trees, and birds; but unfortunately this way is not
open to most teachers.
An incident of which an account was given me by a
lady who had been a member of the Birmingham school
board, would sufifice to prove that there are other means
which can be made of very great use. Two children were
seen by her standing in a public garden in the town, in
front of a foxglove, and one was heard to say to the other,
"That's the flower we've a picture of in our school." No
doubt the children looked at the real flower because they
had seen the picture of it, and would look at the picture
again because they had seen the real flower. Of the power
"admiration, hope, and love." 263
of pictures to give clear ideas I cannot hope to say any-
thing not already known by almost all thoughtful teachers;
but I hope to direct attention to a system now in use in
Manchester, by which pictures are more fully used than
they are, I believe, anywhere else for the purpose of giving
children in elementary schools as many clear ideas as pos-
sible of beautiful and interesting things.
The system to which I refer is that of the Manchester
Art Museum. Sixteen years ago the committee of the
museum began to lend pictures to as many of the elemen-
tary schools in Manchester as they could then afford to
supply; and after ascertaining by experience what kinds of
pictures are most useful in schools, they have formed a
system of "circulating" loan collections by which they
already supply 104 school departments and which will soon
be extended to ninety-six more departments. The system
on which the committee work is this: Twelve pictures are
lent to each school department, and, at the end of a year,
are replaced by another set of twelve pictures, and are
moved on into another department in the same or a neigh-
boring school. Thus every year each department receives
twelve pictures, which have the interest given by novelty
for teachers and scholars. The collections lent to schools
are divided into two classes: i. Those for use in the in-
fants' and junior departments; 2. Those for use in the de-
partments for older boys and girls. The pictures of the
first division now consist of ninety-six collections, each of
twelve pictures. Each of the first six collections contains
pictures, all of which are different from those in any of the
other five collections; but the other sets of six collections
are just the same as the first six. This arrangement is
made for the purpose of keeping the labor of preparing
explanatory labels, already very heavy, within manageable
compass. As six collections, if each remain a year, will
keep a department provided with fresh pictures for six
years,- — a period longer than that spent by a child in one
department, — the plan has no drawbacks to its convenience.
Each collection for an infants' department contains sixteen
264 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
colored plates, framed together, of common kinds of wild
flowers; sixteen colored plates, framed together, of common
kinds of garden flowers; twenty-eight colored plates, in two
frames, of common kinds of wild birds, for one frame of
which sixteen colored plates of butterflies in one frame are
substituted in some of the collections, and in other collec-
tions twelve colored plates intended to show how much
beauty of form and color there is in the commonest weeds,
insects, etc.; one frame containing colored plates of orchids,
intended to give some idea of the splendor of tropical
vegetation; one frame of Hofmann's beautiful representa-
tions of events in the life of Christ; two frames each con-
taining all the colored pictures and text and most of the
black and white pictures of one of Randolph Caldecott's
delightful tale-books, or the fine colored pictures and text
of one of Walter Crane's tale-books; one frame containing
sixteen of the beautiful colored plates of animals from the
last edition of Brehm's Tliierleben; and in alternate collec-
tions a large colored picture of such beautiful scenery as
even Manchester children can see by walking a few miles
from the town, and colored plates of twelve common kinds of
trees, and of their branches, foliage, and blossoms and fruit.
Thus in the course of the six years which elapse before
the last of the six collections is removed from a depart-
ment and the first collection returns to it, the children, if
the teachers have made good use of the pictures, have
become acquainted with the appearance of ninety-six wild
flowers, ninety-six garden flowers, a large number of birds,
thirty-six trees, many kinds of butterflies, tropical plants,
and animals, and some beautiful scenery, and have had
their mental picture-making power stimulated by seeing
twelve sets of Caldecott's and Crane's delightful pictures,
and twenty-one of Hofmann's fine Scripture pictures; and
a large number of words which they will often meet with in
books and newspapers, and which, but for the pictures,
would probably have always been without definite meaning
for them, will by means of the' pictures have clear mean-
ings and very pleasant associations for them.
"ADMIRATION, HOPE, AND LOVE." 265
Each collection for a boys' or girls' department con-
tains pictures of some of the kinds already mentioned; but
as only twelve pictures can be lent at one time to a depart-
ment, and there are many more than twelve different kinds
of subjects of which the committee wish to show pictures to
the older children, some of the kinds of pictures can only
be included in every other collection, and others only in
one or two in each set of six collections. Amongst the
kinds used for boys' and girls' departments and not for
infants' departments are etchings of towns in Belgium,
large colored plates published by Hoelzel of Vienna, which
show the effect of the great forces of nature; Langl's
plates of great works of architecture intended to illustrate
history, large colored plates representing historical scenes;
examples of good wood engravings and line engravings,
framed together; autotype copies of plates of Turner's
Liber SUuiionim, framed with the Rev. Stopford Brooke's
explanations of the plates. No charge is made to a school
for the pictures lent to it, or for any injury not due to gross
neglect, and the museum defrays the cost of carriage and
hanging.
Each picture has at least one explanatory label, and most
have several such labels; but before I can describe the
labels I must briefly describe the Art Museum, as to con-
nect each picture lent to a school as closely as possible
with the collections in the museum is one of the purposes
of the labels.
The Art Museum contains a large number of the best
pictures that we could get of flowers, trees, birds, and other
animals, butterflies, etc., and of examples of beautiful
work in which the forms of these things have been used for
decorative purposes. It contains also a collection of pic-
tures of many of the most beautiful places near Manchester,
intended to give town people a desire to go to the places;
collections of pictures of beautiful scenery in many differ-
ent parts of the world; collections of pictures illustrating
the history of painting, of sculpture and architecture; a
collection of pictures showing the action of the forces
266 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
which have shaped the surface of the earth; sets of plates,
blocks, and tools used in all such processes as lithography,
chromolithography, wood engraving, line engraving, etching,
mezzotinting, etc., with clearly printed explanations of all
the processes and of the effects which each can best give,
and sets of pictures produced by the various processes; and
collections of fine products of the chief industrial arts.
Every picture has a label describing its subject as clearly
as possible. A penny handbook, explaining the contents of
the museum and connecting the various groups of its con-
tents with each other, a penny pamphlet on "What to Look
for in Pictures," and another penny pamphlet which points
out the bearing of the study of beautiful things on mental
and moral health, are sold in the museum. It is placed in
the midst of one of the poorest and most crowded parts of
Manchester, and is open every night in the week except
Sunday and Tuesday till half-past nine, and it is also open
on Sunday afternoon from two till five o'clock. The curator
is always ready to explain the collections to children and
grown-up people, and various members of the committee
often meet parties of work people for the same purpose.
The committee encourage societies of work people to hold
their meetings in the museum on Tuesday evenings by
allowing its rooms to be used without charge.
Now to return to the labels framed with the pictures lent
to schools. Each picture has a label which explains its
subject and tells that it is a chromolithograph, or a woodcut,
or whatever else it may be, and that the way in which it is
made is explained in the Art Museum. If the picture be
cheap enough to be bought by work people, its price is
stated, and often the title and price of a book describing its
subject are mentioned; and as frequently as possible, refer-
ence is made to the Manchester Free Libraries, the art gal-
lery, the Owens College Museum, the botanical gardens, and
the public parks, so that the pictures may give knowledge
of, and desire to use, all the resources of civilization which
Manchester possesses. The pictures of landscapes have a
label which gives some of the reasons for acquiring love of
"ADMIRATION, HOPE, AND LOVE." 26/
beautiful scenery; the labels to the etchings of towns in
Belgium point out that towns are not necessarily hideous,
and ask the children who look at the pictures — future
rulers of Manchester — to think how much pleasanter their
lives would be if their town were as beautiful as Bruges or
Ghent, and, like them, contained trees and pure air; and it
begs them to make up their minds that when they are men
and women they will help to make healthy life possible in
Manchester.
By the use of these labels each collection lent to a
school is as far as possible made virtually a part of the
museum, and some of the teachers and of the older and
more active-minded scholars are induced to come to the
museum, not to wander about aimlessly as so many visitors
do in art galleries, but to acquire this or that kind of
information which the labels have made them desire to gain
and have told them they could get at the museum.
Concerts, lectures with lantern illustrations, and other
entertainments are given twice a week at the museum dur-
ing half the year, tickets for which are sent to the nearest
schools for distribution among the scholars who have at-
tended most regularly; and in this way the museum is made
a favorite resort for a good many children. But we wish
the connection betw^een it and elementary schools to be still
closer and more useful, and with the strong approval of the
Manchester school board, we have asked the education de-
partment to allow that, within limits to be fixed by the
department, time spent by scholars in the museum in school
hours, under the control of a teacher, shall count as time
spent in school; and we have promised that, if this be
allowed, we will add to the very large number of pictures
now in the* museum which could be used to illustrate
lessons on history, geography, physical geography, botany,
and many other subjects, series of other pictures chosen
for their fitness to give children clear ideas of interest-
ing and admirable things.
We are convinced that if our request be granted, as it
probably will be before long, and an hour or two a month
268 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
be regularly spent in the museum by many of the chil-
dren from elementary schools in its neighborhood, their
school life will give them a great deal of the knowledge
best fitted to increase wholesome feeling and thought, and
to influence for good their habits of work and play for
the whole of their lives; and we are convinced also that if
this one museum be found to produce this effect on the life
of even a few hundred children, other parts of Manchester
and many parts of many other towns will soon provide
themselves with similar museums; and that the committee
of the Manchester Art Museum will be able to feel that
they have done something toward winning attention for
the great truth, which is the key to all right life and there-
fore to all right education, — the truth that "we live by ad-
miration, hope, and love."
o
THE CHILDREN'S PAVILION.
N holy errands for the Lord of Love
Sped the glad heralds from the courts above;
And, all unseen, they passed among the throng
Of men who toil, and strive, and suffer wrong.
They saw how Might the crown and scepter bore.
While Love was but a suppliant at his door;
They saw how Greed, with cruel, careless feet.
Trod in the dust Life's blossoms frail and sweet.
They saw how human brotherhood had grown
A radiant dream, for poet's song alone.
While Sorrow's wail and Passion's stormy cries
Jarred the fine chords of all earth's harmonies.
" Master," they cried, " have men forgot the speech
Of that great love thy life was given to teach?
If hearts be mute, and human lips be dumb,
How can on earth thy glorious kingdom come? "
And then they saw, set like a small white flower
That blossoms, trembling, in a woodland bower,
That sends no perfumed breath upon the breeze,
Yet opes its heart to roving honeybees,
A modest temple, with its doors swung wide,
Banners and garlands wreathed on either side.
And children of all nations, linked in love,
As gracious warders set to watch above.
In pictured beauty shone the myths of old.
By loving lips to listening childhood told;
And fairy tales in dear familiar guise
Showed their sweet parables to answering eyes:
270 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
The spring's new birth, the winter's silent sleep,
Green woodland arches, cool with shadows deep,
The glowing treasures of the autumn sere.
And all the glad procession of the year.
There stood the names, in shining letters traced,
That Love among her household saints has placed;
Their faces smiled a welcome from the walls,
And sunshine ran like laughter through the halls.
Swift, dancing feet went pattering everywhere.
And merry voices shook the sunny air;
While dimpled babes, with only smiles for words,
In downy cradles swung like nestling birds.
Back to their dwellmg in the courts above
Sped the glad heralds to the Lord of Love.
"Master," they said, "in spite of hate and sin.
The radiant dawnings of thy day begin.
" Men hold thy lesson in their memory yet;
For in the midst the little child is set.
And by a heavenly wisdom, simple, sweet.
The children's hands shall lead them to thy feet."
Emily Huntington Miller.
Evanstoii, June i, 180^.
SOME TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN CHILD.
ANNIE BRONSON KING.
THERE is no more pathetic and beautiful picture
in literature than that of the old German to
whom God had denied any children of his own,
walking- day after day through the gentle hill-
slopes of his own country, followed by throngs of happy
children.
The country people looked with contemptuous smiles
upon his pale, benignant face, his tender eyes, the tall,
stooping form, clad in quaint homespun; they saw not that
a great spirit had come unto his own; but his own, the little
children, knew him.
Priest and prophet of the baby soul, God denied to thee
a child in the flesh that he might give thee thousands in the
spirit!
The quaint German babies in white frilled caps, that
trotted after Froebel, have followed him into another coun-
try now. What of the children who in this new world are
treading- in the paths he made? What of his methods,
transplanted, from the simplicities and sanctities of German
village life to the dusty city thoroughfares?
The Italian baby in its virgin mother's arms has long
possessed the love of the world. The placid German ma-
donna has as long held her baby before adoring eyes. It is
only very lately that a painter has dared to give to the vir-
gin the face and features of an American woman, and to sur-
round her with angels who look at us with the faces Ameri-
can children wear.
The picture of Mr. Abbott Thayer, an engraving of
which appeared in the holiday Ce7itnry, marked an epoch in
the development of our country. It fixed a type by which
we shall, amid all the cosmopolitan life of America, come
to know ourselves. In this dark-eyed woman with the ten-
272 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
der face, there are many hints of gracious breeding, and
something, too, of the sweet, insistent grace which clung
to the Puritan girl. The type of face is akin to that of
Raphael's Madonna Sedens. The angels on either side are
simple children, very charming and very human.
From the child angel of the old-time painter in its con-
ventional drapery, to these living, breathing, dewy-faced
children in their earthly gowns, the change is very signifi-
cant. Mr. Thayer's angels are idealized children of the
type which we are coming to recognize as the American.
As the American child's mother oftentimes now wor-
ships for herself cleverness, so she worships for her child
prettiness. The Kate Greenaway gowns that swept all our
babies into combinations of color that no babies had ever
worn before, were types of many things which have con-
spired to sweep away much of the old ideal of childhood.
Purity and simplicity count for less than picturesqueness.
As the mother sought to heighten her own perhaps a
little faded beauty by touches of bright color, so she sought
to increase that of her child by the use of hues which had
been reserved always for mature years. The dewy face of
babyhood peeping out from beneath a hat as large as its
own mother's, and heavy with drooping plumes, had a cer-
tain charm in its incongruity. The hair that had been
closely shaven for a generation began to droop in long
love-locks about the face. The result was a certain type of
beauty, a beauty such as belongs not to childhood, but to
later years, when love and longing steal from the heart into
the eyes.
We have made our children look like poets. Are we
keeping for them the poet-heart?
The love of "the pretty" is accented not only in the
child's dress, but in the pictures which it sees of itself, in
the books which it reads about itself, and in the conversa-
tion which it hears. The child is quick to learn.
"I saw such a nice little girl today," says some one.
"Was she pretty?" asks five-years-old, with absorbing
interest.
AMERICAN CHILD TENDENCIES. 273
There are no sage grandmothers now to reply with old-
time maxims; and indeed, perhaps it would be impossible
to find an American child who would seriously consider the
possibility of conduct outweighing appearance.
Next to "the pretty" in daily life and literature and
song, "the little" is emphasized. Innumerable are the
songs and stories wherein the little birdies and the little
kitties play their part. God never made a child with soul
so small that it could not take in the idea of a bird or a
kitten. We narrow the horizon and pen in the baby spirit
by these impertinences of diction.
The beautiful and the grand belong to childhood. The
world has not yet dimmed its capacity for understanding
them. Keep the little and the pretty for the grown-up
people who have narrowed their souls to love them, but
give to the children only the beautiful. That is God's way.
It is not the man, but the boy.
Who by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended.
We take the baby soul endowed by God with high im-
aginings, and teach it our feeble fancies.
It is from the little John Ruskin, penned in his corner
like an idol by the great book, and set to learn the splendid
imagery of the Psalms; from the little Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, with her doll clasped in one arm and the "Iliad"
in the other; from baby hearts thrilled by the noblest im-
pulses of the past, — that the genius of the future is born.
Not from the fair children who pore above "Lord Faun-
tleroy" or "Patsy," from whose pretty lips fall trippingly
the jingles of our time, shall we have thoughts in later
years that brush the stars.
Genius and character are not cradled by the draperies
that keep the winds away; not by the thousand charming
books that beguile child eyes, nor by pretty mammas in
aesthetic gowns; but by hours when the child heart is so
alone with God that it learns to think his thoughts; by
courage and high hopes, and by the white silences of the
night and the language that the stars speak.
Vol. 6-18
274 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
Heaven is hid by portieres. Even our angels no longer
come on snowy pinions, but on graceful wings, long curved,
of peacock dyes; it is a pretty world, and we are clever
people.
But prettiness is not beauty and cleverness is not great-
ness; and better that the children should never be at all
than that they should not be great.
The breath of poetry seems not to linger so much about
our fair child daughters with their dark, haunting eyes, as
about the down-town child.
"I asked a ragged little tot in the street," said a man the
other day, "which she would rather have, the geranium in
my buttonhole, or a dime. She took the flower. Nor could
I persuade her by big stories of all the nice things she could
buy with the money, to change. She only held the flower
tighter. But when I asked the up-town boys and girls, they
looked contemptuously at the geranium and took the
money."
The glory of that scarlet texture woven on some invisi-
ble loom by sun and dew, and spread in happy gladness
by the plant, awoke no pleasure in those little hearts. In a
heavy, drooping jacqueminot most of them would have seen
beauty. But the significance of life lies in the number of
impressions of beauty that our hearts are capable of register-
ing. They should be like that Memnon statue upon which no
ray of light ever fell without calling forth a thrill of music.
It would seem that the great antidote to these tenden-
cies lay in its own nature in the kindergarten. To the
fancy the dear German, as some Pied Piper, played so tender
and enchanting a tune that all who followed, followed him
into the kingdom of heaven.
Simple and tender and beautiful are the traditions of
the kindergarten. The blur of softly tinted skies, the peace
of German valleys, the quaint and simple children a-tune
with nature, — these are the influences which shall leaven our
work-a-da}- world, if only those who take up the pipe of
Froebel will care first of all to play upon it with simplicity
and sincerity.
FORETASTES OF WINTER. 2/5
For Froebel would have turned as sadly from many of
those children whose poses are the prettiest in the kinder-
garten, as he would from the babies who "do" the skirt
dance in hotel parlors.
Only those whose hearts lie as close to God and nature
as Froebel's can rightly interpret him. If the little pitcher
and the large jar go together to the fountain, it is inevitable
that the one should bring away more than the other; but
the dimensions of the human soul are not fixed: the little
pitcher may become the large jar if it will.
FORETASTES OF WINTER.
The corn is reaped, and stacked in sheaves;
The golden pumpkins lie revealed;
And through a purple haze the sun
Shines softly over hill and field.
In orchards fair, like precious gems
Glowing beneath the deep blue sky.
In great rich hoards the splendid heaps
Of red and golden apples lie.
High overhead migrating hosts
Of feathered songsters wing their flight;
The grapes hang heavy on the vines,
And early fall the shades of night.
Forward and back across stone walls
The agile squirrel makes his way,
Adding new treasures to his store.
Through all the sweet autumnal day.
Long since was heard the katydid;
The nights of frost are here at last;
And with the drooping of the sun
Come foretastes of the winter blast,
— Selected.
THE SHOEMAKER'S BAREFOOTED CHILDREN.
EMILIE POULSSON.
(Read before the May session of the International Kindergarten Union.)
BLACKSMITHS' horses and shoemakers' children
always go barefoot," says the old proverb, and
over and over again has its homely imagery oc-
curred to me as I have found it proved by many
an instance.
One of the most famous physicians in New England, —
one whose medical wisdom is consulted by seekers from far
and near, — says: "Yes, my eldest boy is a great student.
He is going to be ready for college two years too soon.
He studies within an inch of his life from Monday to Fri-
day, and then, poor fellow, he is entirely used up over Sun-
day,— has no vitality at all. It's just so every week." All
this is said with pride in the boy's intellect instead of
shame at his own neglect, and off goes this wise physician
to order fresh air and rest and tonics for other people who
are suffering from overwork; and we who know his big-
brained, delicate boy feel the applicability of the proverb.
The leather is there, and the tools, but all are at the service
of outsiders. The shoemaker's child is barefoot.
To make a wider application: The Chinese among us,
ignored and untaught, if not hooted at, derided, and abused,
are the neglected children of us shoemakers who are spend-
ing our labor and substance in providing "shoes" — in this
case schools and missions — for the Chinese across the sea.
Still another and most striking instance is found in the
attention paid by Americans to Ireland's problem of the
evicted tenant, while the same distress, only to far greater
numbers of people, exists in America unregarded. A full
statement of this is given in The Arena for December, 1892,
in the article entitled "Evictions in New York Tenement
Houses." I will quote two or three of its startling items:
SHOEMAKER S BAREFOOTED CHILDREN. 2'J'J
"In the great city of New York alone more than twice the
number of evictions took place in 1891, in three of the judi-
cial districts into which the city is divided, than occurred
in all Ireland in the same year. In 1890, the figures for
New York were 23,895 evictions, while the grand total for
Ireland was only a little in excess of 5,000."
"Last year the spectacle of eighty of these hapless fam-
ilies living for a week on the sidewalks was the feature of
New York's civilization that made English visitors smile in
derision, and remark, as one of them did in the Brevoort
House, 'Well, Ireland is not as badly off under its English
landlords, after all. There an evicted tenant has a fund
on which to draw, contributed by Americans.'"
The shoemakers have pitied their neighbor's children
and covered their feet with shoes; but alas! the feet of
their own children are left shoeless and bleeding.
That kindergarten training is not appreciated as it
should be no one can doubt who compares the small num-
ber of private kindergartens with the many wealthy fami-
lies. If we add, as is surely fair, the number of families
who, without being wealthy, could afford to send their chil-
dren to the private kindergarten, we begin to see what a
meager proportion of these children is received in the kin-
dergarten.
Everywhere we hear the kindergarten extolled as the
saving, uplifting influence for the children of the tenement
houses. Pleaders for its efficacy find unanswerable argu-
ments with which to approach every mother and father,
every charitably disposed person, every religious organiza-
tion, and the public at large.
The manual training afforded by the kindergarten is the
claim which convinces some; the formation of correct men-
tal habits is easily demonstrated and appeals successfully
to others; while the culmination of the other two in the
moral growth which the kindergarten nourishes, is the plea
which reaches the hearts and purses of many. These con-
siderations appeal to educators, to philanthropists, to all
thoughtful people; but even the thoughtless and careless
278 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
are often touched by the obvious joy and beauty which the
child of poverty finds in the kindergarten. Childhood's
title to happiness is granted by universal consent. Child-
hood without happiness seems too unnatural for toler-
ation.
Owing to all these considerations the kindergarten is
growing more and more in favor as a greatly uplifting agency
for the children of the slums. Many of the same argu-
ments are just as forcible when the kindergarten is viewed,
not as a charity, but as the foundation of the public schools.
Through^ a growing belief in its value it is gradually being
introduced into the educational system, and will thus reach
most of the children of the land.
But there are still other children who are not having
kindergarten advantages, and who should not be deprived
of them. In this country of ours, pride ourselves though
we may upon having all men equal, and without barriers of
rank and class, still we must acknowledge that, to a degree,
and inevitably, classes do exist here, though the divisions
are not like those of old and monarchic countries. The
most democratic spirit will admit that classification is pos-
sible on many grounds, — on the ground of character, on the
ground of learning, on the giound of occupation, on the
ground of money; and individuals would change from class
to class according as the basis of classification changed.
For instance, all the workers are not among those who lack
money; all the learned men are not among the wealthy;
many members of the criminal class lack neither wealth
nor education; many of the good citizens have little of
either.
For convenience sake, we will speak of our people as
they fall into three classes, — the rich, the poor, and the
middle classes, with the common meaning of those terms.
Now the rich people are the shoemakers of our proverb.
They listen to our pleas for kindergartens for poor chil-
dren, they acquiesce in our representation of the need of
kindergarten in the public school, they give us help by
tongue and pen and purse toward the accomplishment of
SHOEMAKER S BAREFOOTED CHILDREN. 279
both these great objects. Everywhere the establishment
of free kindergartens testifies to the interest and generos-
ity of those who have the not-to-be-despised wherewithal
which buys kindergarten furniture and materials, and pays
rents and coal bills and salaries. But most of these peo-
ple who give so generously to the establishment and sup-
port of kindergartens for the poor children, have yet to
learn its importance for their own darlings. The shoe-
maker's children are barefoot while he is covering the feet
of other people's children.
The reasons, I think, are easily found in two misconcep-
tions: the one as to the full purpose of kindergarten, the
other as to the peculiar needs of the child in the home of
luxury.
The kindergarten is a great child-saving institution. It
is a great engine of reform, because it reforms in the truest,
most radical way, by preventing the need of reform. That
telling, oft-quoted item about the nine thousand kindergar-
ten children of the San Francisco slums of whom only one
has ever been arrested, is proof enough that the kindergar-
ten will deplete the prison. Grand as this is, however, a
misconception of the kindergarten arises from dwelling
upon such results alone, without examining further. The
whole truth is far grander; for the kindergarten is not an
institution for children of the submerged tenth only, nor for
the children of the great middle class only. It is for all
childhood, of whatever race or rank, of whatever spiritual
endowment or material condition. It is for the child of gen-
ius and the child of defective intellect. It is for the child
who is reaching out to possess the external world in a nor-
mal way by all its senses; for the deaf child, for the blind,
and even for the child who is both deaf and blind, — for all
of whom the remaining senses perform in a wonderful man-
ner the physic offices of those which are lacking.
The kindergarten is not merely a medicine to be pre-
scribed for certain cases and unnecessary in others. It is
like food or oxygen; it is necessary for the sound as well
as the unsound. It is development; it is growth. It is the
280 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
nurture and culture of all the unfolding powers of the hu-
man being.
Kindergartners and all advocates of kindergarten should
keep well in view its fitness for universal application, for
this is what many people have not grasped. For instance,
Mrs. Nabob, who gives liberally of time and money to the
free kindergarten in her city, said to me that she consid-
ered the kindergarten of inestimable value to the poor
children who had such unlovely homes; but that, of course,
children in a better condition of life had no need of its
ministry of beauty and love. With this still in my ears,
the next thing I heard was an exactly opposite verdict from
her neighbor, who considered that kindergarten methods
were so luxurious, so expensive, that they were suitable
only for the children of wealthy parents, who needed the
beauty and refinement of the kindergarten because they
were accustomed to that sort of thing at home.
We often find this incomplete comprehension of the
kindergarten, and an acceptance of it for one class or an-
other because of some particular case which happens to
appeal to the observer. The real reason for the adoption
of kindergarten for all classes is, that it is the method of
nature; i. e., development through self-activity, which the
genius of the great educator has applied in the education
of the human being, by providing materials and environ-
ment upon which and in which that self-activity shall find
its most profitable exercise. This reason is as strong for
the child in the palace as the child in the hovel. So, speak-
ing of kindergarten in its essential purpose, all children
need it for the same reason. Just as the first food of child-
hood is the same in every land, class, or condition, so their
earliest education should be the same. Not until this fuller
and truer conception of kindergarten becomes general, in-
stead of the partial idea of its purpose which now prevails
so largely among the wealthier classes, can we hope for the
kindergarten to be adopted by them for their children.
Nor will this fuller understanding be convincing enough.
There is another misconception, as I said before, which is
shoemaker's barefooted children. 281
also in the way, — a misconception with regard to the needs
of child nature. These needs will not be met simply by
the child's being in a home of culture and luxury. An en-
vironment of poverty develops some kinds of evil tenden-
cies, but just as certainly does the environment of riches
develop others. How the disadvantages of poverty are
especially met by the kindergarten is often told; but the
peculiar disadvantages in the proper development of the
child of wealth, and how kindergarten would meet them,
is seldom considered. With due respect to the advantages
which the mighty dollar can purchase, the disadvantages to
the child are certainly not to be ignored. In the first place,
little Croesus Blueblood often has as little, and sometimes
has less, of genuine "mothering" than the tenement-house
child whose mother works for her living. Mother love and
mother instinct is not always enough to teach the woman
hitherto engrossed in society the importance of cherishing
the close union with her child; so the mother frequently
relegates too much of the holy duty and pleasure of caring
for her child, to the nurse who is so conveniently at hand.
This much will be readily conceded, even though we all
know many mothers who are devotion itself to their chil-
dren, notwithstanding that they utilize the services of one
or two nurses.
It is circumstances, rather than the mother, which create
the undesirable tendencies in these children, and thus lead
to their especial faults. Taking little Croesus at three and
a half or four years of age, we find him possessed of a
chaotic mass of general information. His alert powers of
acquisition have gathered in a great many fragmentary, un-
related, half-notions on a wide range of subjects. The
child is helped to organize and unify this scrappy knowl-
edge by the kindergarten training; for in the kindergarten
all things are regarded in their relation to one another.
The child learns to seek unity, and thus forms the habit of
orderly connected thinking which is an essential of mental
growth. Nor of mental growth alone. Professor Adler, in his
"Moral Instruction of Children," explains clearly how "the
282 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
virtues depend in no small degree on the power of serial
and complex thinking." His demonstration of the moral
defects arising from the " lack of connectedness of ideas,"
is a forceful warning.
Another disadvantage which besets little Croesus is,
that in his elaborate home he is exposed to such a multi-
plicity of impression, succeeding each other with such
rapidity that each is overlaid by a new one before his con-
sciousness has had time to fix any. This is one of the re-
sults of general elaborateness of the home life; but there
are others whose manifestations are especially evident.
His nurse is often changed, and he is expected to trans-
fer his affections to the new incumbent and encouraged to
forget the old nurse. His toys are too many and quickly
replaced by new ones before they have been familiar and
dear. Fickleness and caprice, and a restless looking for
novelty are thus directly fostered. In the kindergarten is
found the influence to counteract these tendencies. There
he plays again and again with the same little box of blocks,
only eight in number and of one shape. He finds how
readily they respond to his fancy, and takes delight in them
day after day. He has the same experience with a few
sticks, a square of paper, a lump of clay. The new idea
dawns: How much can be done with how little? Is not this
a reliable idea for him to grasp? Is it not infinitely pre-
cious compared with the joyless finding of little in however
much one has, — which is the pitiable condition of some of
the "gilded youth"? The kindergarten teaches the child
the superiority of the pleasure which comes from the use of
his own thought and power upon simple material, and pre-
pares him to understand Carlyle's noble thought: "Not
what I have, but what I do, is my kingdom." The over-
powering muchness of what little Croesus has, too often
crushes his power to do; therefore, that his self-activity
should be roused and directed is of priceless importance.
In a household of many servants the child is apt to be
in such a relation to them as is false and injurious. The
child is allowed to command before he has learned to obey.
shoemaker's barefooted children. 283
He sees himself to be an object of consideration and even
deference from these grown people. His untrained judg-
ment cannot withstand this, and the sentiment of reverence,
whose first form is in the child's looking up to its elders, is
marred in the budding and thwarted in its growth.
As I said before, it is not always the fault of the mother;
but the circumstances are too strong for her unaided.
Some help she must have. The kindergarten offers this
help by its teaching of respect for labor and the laborers,
and by showing the child his dependence on the work of
all. Its lesson is ever that all live for each and each must
live for all; that this is a world of universal brotherhood
and mutual service. I admit that this lesson is dangerous
to the aristocratic exclusiveness which some branches of
the Croesus Bluebloods prefer to cultivate; but these who
learn it by heart and not by rote belong thereafter to the
genuine nobility, — to a rank not external and fleeting, but
of the spirit and perpetual.
Another disadvantage which the rich child suffers is,
that his home life allows such little chance for self-reliance
to develop. It is always more trouble to teach a child to
do things for himself than to do them for him; and nurses
are more likely to work for the present smooth running of
nursery affairs than for the later effect upon the child's
character. The sturdy pleasure of doing for himself is one
of the gains of the kindergarten child, and he soon comes
also to the joy of helpfulness. A sense of personal re-
sponsibility is aroused also, for the tiny fellow finds himself
regarded as accountable for his actions. At home he too
often discovers (with that astuteness of which a small child
is capable) that the servants are held responsible for his fail-
ures and misdoings, even where he alone was to blame.
The children of the Croesus families are less likely to
have companionship with those of their own age than the
children of poorer people. The latter are turned out to
play, and can gratify the natural instinct of association with
their equals in age, while little Croesus walks along the
avenue, lonely and deprived of his rights, however kindly
284 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and sympathetic his nurse may be. Older or younger chil-
dren in the family do not answer a child's need fully.
Social relations with his equals in age and development
give him a standard by which to get a true estimate of him-
self, and a natural opportunity for the growth of justice
and unselfishness. Social union is the basis of all culture.
The play of children among themselves is especially the
basis of all moral culture.
"Without the various relations between man and man,
morals and culture \-anish; the desire for society is at the
foundation of church and state, and of all that makes hu-
man life what it is." — Baroness Marenholtz von Billoiv.
Evei'y normal child has this desire for society. Where
is it so healthfully gratified as in the kindergarten?
Let us briefly review these observations. The circum-
stances of his home life tend to make the child of wealth in-
active, superficial, self-regardful. He needs the kindergar-
ten because his home life is against the development of
definite related mental perceptions, and therefore against
orderly thinking, — an essential of mental and moral power;
against the development of his self-reliance, of a sense of
personal responsibility; against the development of a power
for persistent work; against the development of respect and
reverence, and of the idea of supremacy of thoughts over
things.
Because these children are like a city set upon a hill,
because they will soon be leaders of society and centers of
influence, it is all-important that they should receive such
an education as has for its object "the realization of a faith-
ful, pure, inviolate, and hence holy life." The kindergarten
gives the beginning of such an education. Let us plead
that all children, rich as well as poor, have their right be-
ginning, recognizing that it is, first, for all childhood, irre-
spective of class or condition; secondly, that it provides
counteracting influences for the disadvantages which arise
from any particular environment.
The kindergarten — ^the beginning; however strong our
faith, we do not trust all to the kindergarten. The plant
shoemaker's barefooted children. 285
may be brought to a beautiful, vigorous growth, with every
bud and blossom upon it the heart of a gardener could wish
to see; but bud and blossom are only promise. Fulfill-
ment and fruitage depend on the continuance of proper
nurture and culture. Nevertheless, the best of care cannot
perfect the fruit if the young plant is thwarted in develop-
ment before or during blossom time.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE COLUMBIAN
SCHOOL EXHIBITS.
AMALIE HOFER.
MAN, like God, is known only by his works. The
school exhibit, as that of every other depart-
ment comprising the Columbian Exposition,
could only be made concrete in the products of
the school. These products, like those of any other har-
vest field, tell the story of seed planting, proper environ-
ment and care, and the final reproduction of all these ele-
ments in ripened grain. The results of school culture are
not necessarily invisible or unmeasurable. The child must
and may prove his impressions in noble expressions. The
fact that acres of walls were covered with the fruits of the
schools of the world does not entirely prove that these
fruits grew and ripened from the heart outward. The fact
of such a great exhibit does not prove that the hundreds of
thousands of children thereby recorded, were being given
individual nurture; but it shows the field as a whole, its
possibilities and necessities.
It has been hinted in a detrimental tone, that the bulk
of the school exhibit was drawing, sewing, and other hand
work. One critic has facetiously remarked that if a man
from the moon were to drop down upon the American
school display, he would say, "These schools are all draw-
ing schools." Such critics have failed to learn the lesson
of the centuries, — the lesson that learning, mathematics,
observation, like art, must be applied, must be turned to a
purpose before it can be estimated, tested, or represent a
value. Even though drawing and manual training have
received the lion's share, are they not as good gauges of
school progress as any concrete form to be found? Geog-
raphy, history, language, and arithmetic papers, bound in
substantial quartos and placed on shelves in a more com-
COLUMBIAN SCHOOL EXHIBIT LESSONS. 28/
pact form, are none the less honored. In order to exhibit
these lines of study, it would be necessary to bring the
boys and girls who, like sponges, have absorbed their juice.
A work of art embodies in a concrete form all the
aroma of the special studies which boys and girls have
inhaled and' exhaled. What has a growing child, who
radiates quite in proportion to his power of absorption, —
what has this growing thing to do with numbers or letters,
except as they enter into his growth and life, and become
tools by which he may measure living quantities?
Another critic says: "The exhibits of foreign countries
show that they are not indifferent to the training of the
hand and eye, but in the ordinary schools these subjects do
not monopolize space and attention." The critic forgets
that all we know of manual training, industrial education,
natural methods, and modern schooling originated on the
continent. Russia first taught us manual training, Switzer-
land and Germany pleaded for natural methods, and today
the representatives of these countries come to America to
study our schools. They say: "You have applied the prin-
ciples we honor; you have made them practicable; you
have established such schools as we only dream of."
Is it a slight matter for American educators to defame
the effort of the home school, which, because of its greater
freedom from shackles, dares to make glaring mistakes in
order to test the new order of humanity, which says that
education should produce not scholars nor soldiers, but
men?
Professor Shinn, of the committee on awards of the
educational exhibit, has had an opportunity to make a com-
parative test of the exhibits of the various nations. In a
recent public address he urged that we infuse more of
the continental sincerity and prolonged fidelity into our
schools, in order to hold our own with that proficiency
which comes alone through unstinted application. This
advice is timely and may be applied to all American life, of
which the schools are such a vital portion. A young
Englishman who has spent the six months of the Exposi-
288 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
tion in charge of a London art exhibit, declared, in sub-
stance, on leaving Chicago: "I have criticised your climate,
your crude society; 1 have wept over your un-English cul-
ture and the total barrenness of the art spirit; I have
sighed for congenial London circles; all this I have ex-
pressed publicly and privately for six months. Now I am
going back to all for which I have sighed, but I go with a
new sense of individual spirit. Henceforth no man shall
override me, force class distinctions upon me, nor lead me
by that subtlest of all errors, to underestimate and despise
my own humble efforts. This I have learned, have assim-
ilated by degrees here in your Western world, and I would
not exchange that bit of knowledge for a university
library."
The method of adjudging the educational exhibit has
been the same as that followed in every other department,
— viz., the single judge system. The following are the
names of the judges on awards, who acted individually, and
then debated their judgments in committee sessions:
Otillia Bondy, Austria; A. E. Carqua, Italy; E. M. Chu-
carro, Uruguay; L. L. Dimcha. Russia; Dr. R. Ekstrand,
Sweden; Kirsten Frederikson, Denmark; J. C. Heard, Rus-
sia; Hilda Lundin, Sweden; Dr. O'Rielly, Great Britain;
F. F. Perez, Mexico; Mrs. M. J. Surano, Spain; Mr. Sev-
wanad, Mme. Semetchken, Russia; W. F. Terry, New South
Wales; Prof. Weatzolt, Germany; Y. Yambe, Japan. Also
the following for the United States: Mrs. Bartle, W. E.
Cameron, Mrs. Augusta J. Chapin, Jno. P^aton, Wm. W.
Folwell, Mrs. Fair, Mrs. Brozillia Gray, D. S. Jordan, W. R.
Smith, J. L. Spaulding, J. H. Shinn, Miss Ella Sabin, Miss
Tutwiler.
The results of these judgments are not yet made public,
but it is a well-known fact that the judges have sought to
find the substantial evidences of the actual school work
behind the exhibits. For example, where a school pre-
sented the everyday work of each pupil, greater credit was
allowed than where a partial percentage of the pupils was
represented.
COLUMBIAN SCHOOL EXHIBIT LESSONS. 289
Meanwhile, thousands of teachers, parents, and students
have wandered through the exhibits and passed their com-
ments and expressed their conclusions. One has heard
sweeping comparisons made between the various exhibits,
often without reference to the differing purposes of such.
Here is the work of a single private school, — we may say
of one individual, — which is advantageously compared with
the composite exhibit of a city's public schools. Or again,
the work of a foreign country has been estimated accord-
ing to American standards and possibilities, regardless of
the governmental and climatic differences.
Race traits and national characteristics stand behind
every exhibit, and nowhere should these be more con-
spicuous than in the work of the children and youth of a
nation. In order to give due credit to such qualities, it is
necessary to have knowledge of international values.
This school exhibit has brought together an extensive
library of printed statistics, as well as plans and organiza-
tions. These official documents have added great value to
the exhibits, and have done their part in wiping out igno-
rances and prejudices which have gathered about their
respective lands. Every progressive educator should have
secured the collection. The statistics of the educational
ministries of Japan and Russia alone have provided the
writer with a broader appreciation of the world's progress,
and the ability of each nation to work out its salvation.
International ignorance will never generate the brotherhood
of man.
The committee on awards for this department of the
great Exposition, in being selected from among many na-
tions, has accomplished much to establish this true esti-
mate of the relative values of the world's school work.
Through a knowledge of the magnificent men and women
who have stood for the products of the various schemes of
education, we have anew learned the lesson of education's
aim and purpose, — namely, that of revealing humanity in
its brotherhood.
Vol. 6-19
EDITORIAL NOTES.
Our Christmas message to the earnest readers of the
Kindergarten Magazine is a reminder of the great gift of
growth which has come to us during the past season, in-
dividually and collectively. The kindergarten cause has
widened its borders, has received a host of new workers and
sympathizers, and stands this Christmas day as one of the
portals by which educators may enter into the Kingdom.
As espousers of this cause, let us unite in thanksgiving and
gratitude. The favors of progress have showered about us
even more than we can measure or count. Let our appreci-
ation of this growth be manifest in more sincere fellowship,
in a more candid interchange of opinions, and a warmer,
more cordial intercourse among the workers. And in all
our growth and enlarged capacities, let us not forget one
of the least of these newcomers into the work. The hun-
dreds of young women, some scarcely more than girls, who
yearly join our ranks, should have the right of way to our
hearts. Let us occupy every opportunity to say the word
and do the deed which shall inspire them to ennobled aim
and effort. It lies with every earnest kindergartner to fire
and kindle a hundred more into sincerity and ability.
Many inquiries come concerning the Kindergarten Lit-
erature Company and the conditions for membership to the
same. For the information of such we repeat what has been
extensively published among our readers: The Company is
organized and capitalized for the purpose of publishing and
disseminating kindergarten literature, and also as a central
station for answering questions and increasing the public
interest in the work. The Company is composed of some
thirty stockholders, who in annual meeting have a voice in
shaping and controlling the . policy of the work. These
also elect a board of directors and the customary officers.
The list of stockholders is made up completely of profes-
• EDITORIAL NOTES. 29I
sionally trained kindergartners and sympathizers with our
cause, with the definite purpose of holding close to Froe-
bel's ideals all the productions of literature, text-books,
etc., besides the planting and working of new fields every-
where.
We earnestly desire that all organizations in this line
make an effort to take at least one share of stock before
this first year is out, and assist in making it possible for the
Kindergarten Literature Company to prove that an ideal
may succeed as a business venture, and further show forth
that organization for educational reform is not an idle
purpose.
We would practically suggest that each energetic, live
body of kindergarten workers plant one share of stock in
the name of their association, subscribing for the same with
a small cash payment, the rest to be met in installments.
We request correspondence on this matter, and solicit the
early attention of all our workers.
This organization is not a private venture, but is of the
most vital importance to each individual worker as well as
each organized body; and that the kindergarten cause be
recognized as a business factor as well as professionally has
become necessary, as perhaps few realize so completely as
do the prime movers in the Kindergarten Literature Com-
pany. The year just closing has already done much to
establish this recognition. The unprecedented growth of
the kindergarten movement is everywhere acknowledged,
and our w^orkers must not lose this opportunity to guide
and mold their own cause. The business control of a work
should be held by the persons who hold the ideals of it, and
those who have already joined the Kindergarten Literature
Company fully realize what a strong stroke its organization
has been for the cause.
The well-trained, earnest, and womanly kindergartner
has an unprecedented opportunity to do a great work. She
may take her rank among the leading women workers of
her land. Even though her ambition be not among the
292
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
stars, she will still need to be most thorough, most compre-
hensive in her calling, and most receptive to all that is
known as progress. A little training, less experience, and
general indifference are not the elements of success in this
high calling. As teachers, as parents, as kindergartners, we
need, not more methods, mot more facts and information at
our tongue tips, — but we need more womanliness, higher
ideals, and less self-interest.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's "MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. IV.
It is to "souls that are gentle and still" that revelations
of great truths come. It is in the moments of uncounted
quiet and self-communion that a great book renders up its
treasure. Analytical study or compulsory study do not
winnow out the sweetest kernels or the choicest grains of
thought.
Take your "Mother-Play Book" for a quiet hour, and
turn to page seventeen. Allow yourself to search out the
illustration of the song entitled "Play with the Limbs."
What story do you read in the picture? How many differ-
ent stories can you find? If little children were looking at
the picture, what would they find? What is the central fig-
ure in the picture? Why does one-half the story tell of in-
door life, the other half of outdoor life? Is 'baby a passive
quantity? Is mother a silent, inactive figure? Has the
little lamp no meaning to bab)'? Why is the mill brought
into the picture? Does it tell a story of passivity? And
the running stream which turns its wheels, and which at-
tracts the group of equally busy children, holding them by
its spell half-way up the hillside?
Why should good mother sing a story as she plays with
her baby? Which does the child understand best, — her
words, or her frolicsome play, *or her generous good-will?
Why does she carry him to see the old mill, which, like
himself, is never still? What is her purpose in accompany-
ing to the hillside stream the children, who are certainly
old enough to take care of themselves? Why is the little
group of five pictured as busy, each in his own way?
What is the meaning of other mills, other homes, other
mothers, as introduced into the upper part of the picture?
294 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Do you notice the tiled floor in baby's nursery, and the or-
namentation of every detail of the furnishings?
In arranging these illustrations, it was the clear intention
of Froebel to make them tell the story, which is also em-
bodied in song and motto. A child finds every detail of
value and meaning. The moral of the simple nursery rhyme
is pointed in the motto, that mother's eyes may not fail to
find the meaning in her play. The law of unbroken, unin-
terrupted activity which every detail of the picture illus-
trates, is the law of child life, of human life, of nature.
Mother in her unthinking play with the child is fulfilling
this law. It is the same law which is fundamental to all life.
Growth and onward movement are the proofs of existence.
Every child of nature, whether seedling or infant man, re-
sponds to and expresses ceaseless activity. It is baby's right
to be forever kicking and tossing about.
Is mind ever inactive? Mind and man may be at rest,
but are never passive. Thought is the constant action of
mind, and in the case of the child the deed or action follows
the former instantaneously. Hence mother's first lesson
from baby is the knowledge of this fundamental principle
of his being, — namely, self-activity .
The following literal translation of Froebel's motto to
this song may throw a varying light upon its simple mean-
ing:
When baby arms and legs throws about,
Mother's spirit of play at once is called out;
This from the Creator she is prompted to do:
Young though her child,
She may, deftly and mild,
Through outer things help his spirit life grow;
Through frolic and fun and purposeful teasing.
Deep feeling and thought will some day awaken.
What is the application of the homely Kose-lied to a
modern nursery or kindergarten? Shall it be transferred
literally from some mountain village of the continent to an
American metropolis? You answer: child nature has its
universal qualities. Whatever has an application to child-
hood in common, may be safely transferred. Shall we sing
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 295
the song as it stands, in our now more and more honored
"Mother-Play Book," even though its quaint story paints
no familiar picture for our babies? Let us not forget that
the singing of the story, and the rhythmic play with those
plump legs or arms, are quite as important as the words
themselves. The words should tell a story, the song should
be musical, and the mother's play with the bubbling baby
should be truly frolicsome.
The lighted lamp has a charm for all wide-eyed children.
The song does well to attach its story to so attractive and
familiar an object. What makes the lamp bright? is a
question upon which the child verges long before he knows
how to ask it. Mother anticipates, and plays that sturdy,
stout legs shall tramp out the oil to feed the lamp. The
song might be translated to run as follows:
Plip, flap! How plump little legs toss about!
From out the poppy and hemp let's tramp
Oil for pretty, shining lamp.
That it may burn both clear and bright,
While mother-love all through the night
Keeps watch, keeps watch with baby.
Any other song, rhyme, or story which fits the condition of
your children, and which embodies their activity, giving it
scope and interest, is equally valuable. There have always
been many such nursery songs used, from "Trot, trot to
Boston," to "Pat-a-cake." They are from hence on to be
used not merely as instinctive amusement, but with con-
scious reference to the daily enlarging capacity of the baby.
The explanation in the back of our book gives P^roebel's
own interpretation of his purpose in presenting the song.
Here .we gather such general facts as these:
I. All development comes through activity. The child
expresses himself instinctively. The mother hitherto re-
sponds unconsciously. 2. Feeling life within, it must be
expressed. The mother suggests a channel for this doing.
3. By means of the particular action, if only so slight a
thing as pressing his feet against the mother's palms, the
child comes to a conscious experience.
296 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
This song and its study give us the form of all the others,
each of which typifies and illustrates an equally important
law in universal life, therefore in child life.
As it will be impossible to handle all of the fifty songs
in detail in this series, as we must confine ourselves to the
few, it will be helpful to have suggested the groups of songs
to consider between the numbers. The unillustrated song
entitled, " Falling, Falling," may be readily grasped as suc-
ceeding this of the "Tossing Limbs." The latter states the
law: self-activity is the necessity of self-expression. The
"Falling, Falling," makes a practical and wider application
of that law. Trace it out, following the signposts of your
individual experiences. — Amalic Hofer.
CHARACTER AS APPLIED TO MUSICAL SOUNDS.
In the article of last month a brief history of the method
of singing known as the Tonic Sol-fa was given, with such
information of the method as was necessary to a proper
presentation of the subject.
It is our purpose in this and in succeeding articles to
consider the special features which characterize this system
of musical instruction, with sufficient elaboration to make
them understood and appreciated.
We will choose for our present discussion the chief char-
acteristic of the Tonic Sol-fa method as developed by John
Curwen, by whom, as we have remarked heretofore, it was
discovered and put into practice: we refer to the theory of
the mental effects of tones.
The primary object of instruction in music is the devel-
opment of musical intelligence. This statement contains
much which at first will not be appreciated. The ability to
produce certain results without knowing just how and why
we produce them, and the ability to produce these same re-
sults intelligently, differ very materially. Therefore to be
truly musically intelligent is to possess the ability to pro-
duce musical results, knowing the why and the wherefore of
them.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 29/
The inclination to sing is natural to the human race.
Among the first sounds which greet the awakening of in-
telligence in the infant mind is the voice of the mother with
her sweet lullaby, soothing his pain and driving away his
childish grief. So through life does the power of music in-
fluence us.
Why is this? Because music is the language of the emo-
tions, which are closely allied to thought, the source of
action, the sum total of which is the conduct of life.
The power of music is a much-used expression; but to
be truly sensible of this power we must be able to appre-
ciate wherein it exists. If it exists in the emotions from
which proceed thought and action, this emotional language
must necessarily portray the various phases or character-
istics of the human being.
The alphabet of this language is the musical scale, which
consists of seven primary tones. Each of these seven mu-
sical sounds or tones must naturally produce an impression
on the mind peculiar to itself and at the same time charac-
teristic of that quality of emotion which it portrays.
From among these seven tones one is chosen as the
foundation upon which this musical structure is reared. As
in material building each succeeding stone bears a certain
relation to the first, so in this musical structure, or the scale,
each succeeding tone is peculiarly related to the first or
foundation tone.
The awakening of musical intelligence begins when the
mind has presented to it the Tonic or Doh chord, composed
of the three most important tones of the scale, — the first or
Tonic (doh), so called because of the peculiar office it per-
forms, the fifth or Dominant (soh), and the third or Medi-
ant (me). These three tones are the strong elements of
the scale; the reason why this is so will be given later.
The Tonic (doh ), w^hich must by virtue of its office be the
strongest tone, is characterized as firm; the Dominant (soh),
the next in importance, as bright and bold; the Mediant
(me), as the calm, gentle, and peaceful constituent of the
scale.
290 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
These tones when sung with proper expression make
such an impression on the mind that in a first lesson the
pupil is enabled to tell instantly the character of each tone
when it is heard, and to sing the required tone when the
character alone is mentioned after the first tone has been
given.
To further develop the special features of these tones
suitable words are sung to them in short sentences or in
phrases, and their characters are brought out more strongly
still by the use of words not in sympathy with them; or the
suitability of these tones to certain words may be shown by
contrast, with the use of tones possessing opposite charac-
teristics.
As music is the language of the emotions, it performs its
highest office when united to words; and a more complete
union will be established when, as just shown, the music
sympathizes with the words, which, springing from the intel-
lectual nature, require certain conditions in order to become
more effective. These conditions are supplied through mu-
sic, and the union of these two natures, the emotional (mu-
sic) and the intellectual (words), leads to a better apprecia-
tion and interpretation of both.
The effects of these tones are still further enforced by a
series of signs which form a silent but very expressive lan-
guage. These signs are made with the hand, and strongly
suggest the characters of the tones.
As in the study of painting the eye is constantly trained,
so in the study of music the ear is being trained; and if ac-
cording to this method, so effectively that the pupil will be
able to recognize musical sounds with certainty. This is
considered by the exponents of the Tonic Sol-fa method as
the most important step in the direction of musical intelli-
gence.
This subject will be resumed in the next article, when the
remaining tones of the scale will be considered.
As the subject of Christmas music is just now engaging
the attention of most people, we would suggest that future
songs of this kind be simple and heartfelt, calculated to
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 299
arouse the emotions which the season suggests; and as
Christmas songs seem peculiarly adapted to little children,
they will, if of a suitable character, be more certainly ap-
preciated.— Emma A. Lord, Brooklyn.
THE TYPICAL PROGRAM APPLIED TO THE DAILY VICISSITUDE.
II.
For the first month's work in our public school kinder-
gartens this year, we chose the "rock family" for our sub-
ject, because of its suggestiveness as a foundation for the
subsequent thought that all objective life has vital connec-
tion with the earth, and that the rock family, though
belonging to inorganic nature, so called, is closely related to
all organic forms of life through the substance of rock and
soil being interchangeable, and from the bosom of Mother
Earth all \-egetable and animal life is nourished. The
human being has relation to the animal or physical life on
the one side, and to the spiritual or God-like life on the
other; therefore there is actual, living connection between
the highest and lowest forms of life, and our mission
should be to live out this vital relationship in the kinder-
garten, with the motto. Nothing lives to itself alone, but
prepares the way for the next stage of progress.
Our aim, from the public school standpoint, is to pre-
pare the children for the primary grades, along practical
lines of awakened perceptions of certain qualities of num-
ber, form, color, etc., with musical feeling (music is taught'
in our public schools) and the increasing ability for ab-
stract thought. We are to connect the logical order of
the gift work with the subject of the day, week, or month,
not losing through our subject this connection of the gifts,
but rather letting them interpret our subject, while we,
from our kindergarten standpoint, know that we should
incorporate these essential qualities of the gifts into the
very substance of the thought underlying our use of them.
It is not enough to give ideas, no matter how truly they
are facts, unless they are living thoughts to the child, and
300 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the mental powers cannot grow except with the growth of
the entire nature. We know the "whole child" should go
to kindergarten.
The first week we opened we decided to take plenty of
time in learning to know one another in the sense of estab-
lishing a home feeling, and growing into the perception
that we carry our chairs together, move in line, obey sig-
nals, etc., because this is the way we find we like. When
the talk about the "rock family" began, Clinton, who was
with us last year, was asked to tell us if there were other
kinds of families besides people's families that he knew of.
"Ves, indeed; horses' families, cats' families, dogs' families,
camels' families" (some of our children have been to the
World's Fair, and camels are fascinating beings to them).
Many children are interested in the subject of the camel
family.
After the children's mentioning many domestic and
wild animals as having little ones and comprising families,
and bringing into the conversation some members of the
insect world, they were each asked to bring a small stone
next day, such as they could find in the street or that lay
in their yard. One little fellow said he could bring one
'' tliis big'' — showing the space inclosed within his two arms
curved outward. "Oh, not so large as that! Look, chil-
dren" (and the kindergartner shaped her hands into the
form represented for the "ball for baby" in the Poulsson
book); "even this will be too big for some of you. Little
stones easy to carry are what I want." As a result, numer-
ous limestones gave us quite a collection of this branch of
the rock family; and as the members of the family increased
on our shelves, and as specimens of quartz, felspar, sand-
stone, stalactites, lead and iron ore, and a beautiful sili-
ceous rock with great dazzling crystals like veritable dia-
monds encrusted on its surface, came to take their places
among the limestones, the children's interest deepened, and
they could see here was a family indeed, with dissimilar
members, yet all showing a certain relationship. Clay mod-
eling, drawing, and cutting and pasting were the materials
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 3OI
used for expressing our interest in the rocks in these early
days of their coming among us. In what follows, only a
small part of what can be done with this subject is given.
This, however, is our essential thought: The rocks are of tJie
very substa?ice of which our earth is composed, and all life is
governed by one laiv.
Pari I — Study Outline for Kindergartner. — i. Limestones:
The children can see that these stones, once large pieces
of rock, when broken small at the roadside and then spread
upon our streets, are crushed by heavy wagons, and finally
form part of the roadway.
2. Other stones, giving the idea of the "rock family'':
Different colors and appearance. Main division now,
those that are smooth, showing no corners, and those that
are rough, having many points or corners. Water-worn
rocks, and those not so acted upon by water, or the rubbing
of the rocks against one another.
3. Aqueous rocks and igneous rocks. The six strata of
the rock families. The upper four containing fossils.
4. The Stone Age. Cave dwellers (quaternary strata).
Part II — I. The uses to which men have put various
members of the rock family since the earliest times. The
implements of flint and stone used by primitive man.
2. The great variety of uses to which we put stone and
rock: roadways, bridges, houses, fences, curbstones, flag-
ging, foundation walls.
3. The beautiful pillars and marble floors of some
buildings.
Part III — I. Some relations of the rock family: chalk
and marble related to the limestones (soft rocks).
2. Sandstone: plaster, slate, clay, mortar, glass.
The First Gift was introduced to all the children at
pnce one morning, when they sat on the circle in one of
our quiet times; hands still, feet still, heads still, eyes still
and fixed upon the yellow disk painted in the center of the
floor. "All can close their eyes." After a moment, " Now
you can open them. What do you see?" "A ball! a red
ball!" exclaimed the children. "Can you do what this red
302 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ball does? See, it is rising high and higher." Children rise
also. It moves this way, now that way, and the children
take delight in following the motions of the graceful ball.
"A clock, a bell; a bird, and how birds love to fly!"
Another time the red ball came to them on the morning
circle as little Millie Ball in a bright red dress. She had
come to kindergarten to have a good time with the children,
— to play with them and work with them; and we will like
her because she always speaks softly, moves quietly, and
tries to do what is right, never being rough or rude, though
she loves to skip, and jump, and play she is a bird, a
bright flower, the pendulum of the clock that tells us it is
time to go to school, and many other things. But now see
whom she has brought with her to kindergarten today
(holding up sphere of Second Gift): Billie Ball, a little
friend of Millie's, who lives quite near her. She. thinks he
will like the kindergarten too. Do you think Billie looks
much like Millie?
"Yes," "No," "He's hard," "He'll make a noise," comes
from the children. "Yes, sure enough, he cannot move as
softly as Millie Ball; but today he is going to try to do just
as Millie does." (Rolling them along the floor, the children
rolling back, holding them by their strings, and hopping
them along together, the sphere makes more noise than the
worsted ball; but the children see that the noise can be
controlled, and that wood h.3.s a different sound from stuffed
wool.)
At one of the tables Millie Ball has five little sisters
with her, each in a different-colored dress. They play a
game. Millie, dressed in red, stands first; next to her
comes her sister in the orange-colored dress; then the
sister in the yellow dress, and so on, through green, blue,
and violet. Millie runs over to one of the children, her
next sister to another. When they have all left the row,
the kindergartner says, "Who came first?" (Millie takes
her place.) "Who comes next?" (Sister in the orange
dress;) and they are finally, after some mistakes, ranged
as before. " Millie is number one. What number is sister
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 3O3
in the orange dress?" She is number two, and so on.
When the children have finished counting the six sisters in
their order, we take them away again. " Now^ let us put
number four on the table; number six;" and we skip about.
Mistakes are made, but the children are learning the color,
with the place where it belongs in the spectrum.
At another table Millie Ball is playing she is a pendu-
lum, and the baby children are swinging their arms, with
fists doubled up to represent theirs. The little ones' arms
move stiffly, and the kindergartner goes to each to see
what is the matter with the works. The "de-energizing"
of the muscles is accomplished with many, thus giving
more free and joyous swing to the movement.
On the morning circle certain children are chosen, and
asked to sit upon the floor looking as much like rocks as
possible: elbows and knees angular, like the sharp corners
of the limestones. With soft, flowing melody from the
piano the kindergartner moves slowly along, representing a
stream, and letting her hands drag themselves over the
children's bodies that they may feel their contact. "These
rocks in the water feel it flowing, flowing, flowing, along,
over, under, around them. After years, and years, and
years, it smooths, and smooths, and s-m-o-o-t-h-s the cor-
ners away." The rocks are very still while this goes on,
and all the children seem much pleased with the impres-
sion made in this way. When they are asked the next
morning "What helps to rub away the sharp places on the
rocks?" they exclaim, "The water." "Yes, and they get
thrown against one another, too," said the kindergartner,
"and they have some of their rough corners rubbed off
that way." (Children imitate motion of stones rubbing
one another.)
Clinton, Cherry, Eddie, Maurice, Florence, Lillie, Sun-
shine, and Millie (one of the older girls) are beginning to
take the lead in answering questions and giving suggestions
and observations relevant to the subject at hand, while
Phil is already becoming conspicuous for irrelevant re-
marks thrown in at all times; and Lenoir, a fair-haired.
304 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
innocent-faced child, of most sturdy physique and bellig-
erent tendencies, enjoys pinching and poking his near
neighbors. There are a score of children (mostly babies)
who are not yet accustomed to the idea of sitting quietly
in a chair. These require much of arm and leg movement.
"We will all stand. Now we will double up and be as
roly-poly as we can, and play we are round pebbles." We
curl up on the floor, and twist and turn to get as round as
possible. Again, we find our right hands, beginning thus
to learn left from right, and talk a little about the mother
and father, the sister and brother, with baby, least of all,
enlarging the relationship by finding on the left hand —
This is grandmother, good and dear;
This is grandfather, with hearty cheer;
This is the uncle, stout and tall;
This is the auntie who loves one and all;
This is the cousin, pet of all.
Behold the good family, great and small.
And how all the children want to talk at once about their
mammas, grandmammas, brothers and sisters, and the ba-
bies.—all except certain children who gaze intently at you.
and whose sensitive faces take on a self-conscious .look
when directly addressed. These are the children who are
receiving intelligent impressions of all that goes on around
them, but who are by temperament averse to expression or
action. These contemplative but not indolent little ones
need such careful treatment, that a wrong method might
spoil all. We soon know these children, and refrain from
bringing them "before the public," knowing that their time
will come, and that unconsciously to themselves they will
find the "dreaded public" to be only children like them-
selves, with sympathy born of community of interests.
But these vacant-eyed children, who, though they look
at you, do not see you, or who look out of the window
when all else are interested in what is going on in the
room, — one of these is a type of his class. "Sam. what are
you thinking of ?" "I ain't thinking o' nothin'." His wits
are woolgathering, and while the others are gathering
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 3O5
wool, he is the lamb who comes back from every mental
excursion shorn. These children, of parents not only poor
in purse but in intellectual and moral caliber, are hard to
reach; but we are not discouraged. It is difficult for them
to concentrate the mind upon anything, even for a moment.
They have no vivid imaginings; their sense impressions are
not keen. Their whole being seems dull and apathetic.
We now have the children arranged for w^ork in three
rooms, with one assistant in each room, to about twenty
children. The tables are placed in the form of a hollow
square, or L shaped. In one room are the advanced chil-
dren, in another the babies, in the third the middle divi-
sion of children. Clinton, Cherry, Lillie, Sunshine, and
Millie are in the first division. Eddie, Florence, and Phil
are in the second, while Maurice, Lenoir, and Sam are in
the third division among the babies.
Johnnie Cube came to kindergarten one morning with
his little friend Billie Ball (sphere of Second Gift), who
had first been brought by Millie Ball ( red ball of First
Gift). Johnnie Cube lives in the same house with Billie
Ball; in fact, he is his brother; }'et how unlike they look!
Children see resemblance to the rocks, in Johnnie Cube.
"A rough rock or a smooth sawn stone?" The latter; they
count the cube's faces and corners. Johnnie Cube cannot
run like Billie Ball, but likes to sit still or slide on a
smooth surface. Next day Sister Cylinder is shown com-
ing out of the same house with Billie Ball and Johnnie
Cube. The children are delighted to see that she can run
with the roly-poly Billie, and can slide with the stolid
Johnnie. She is indeed sister to both; thus all three are
related. "They have come to stay now in the kindergar-
ten, and there is a wonderful game they can pla}^ When
they spin themselves a certain way Johnnie Cube turns
himself into Sister Cylinder, and Sister Cylinder turns her-
self into Billie Ball; and whom do you think Billie Ball
turns himself into?" Some of the children exclaim, " John-
nie Cube!" We shall see. (Revolve the forms.) Children
notice resemblance in sphere and c}'linder to water-worn
\o\ . 6-20
306 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
rocks, and they find resemblances to these fundamental
forms in various objects about them. They particularly
delight in outlining these forms in the air, while at the
tables they play sawing stone, hauling rock, etc. With the
Third Gift stone walls, gateways, houses, chimneys, tunnels,
monuments, steps, bridges, etc., are made. These eight
little Johnnie Cubes are the children of the big Johnnie
Cube of Second Gift; for when they all put themselves
together, into the form of big Johnnie Cube, they are just
the same size and shape.
Modeling, drawing, and sewing of the ball: Our black-
boards are a delight to many of the children. Two of our
youngest become so absorbed at the blackboard that it is
difficult for them to leave it. The oldest children have
their drawing books, and in the combination of lines are
learning to master the elements of writing. These oldest
children (most of them six years of age) modeled the cube
from the sphere by topping, and the result showed care
and accuracy. The pasting of circles and squares by all
the children is a great pleasure. To some they are the
pictures of the ball, or apples, or marbles, while the squares
are stone flagging, stone walls, etc.
The six strata of rock were drawn upon the blackboard,
showing the igneous rocks at the bottom. Another day a
picture of Vesuvius, with the cities between it and the Bay,
was drawn upon it, with boats and ships upon the water.
After hearing this story of the eruption of the mountain,
with its lava and ashes covering the cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum, the children thought they would like to make
the volcano at the sand table, one child taking especial
charge of it while the others supplied the sand, not stop-
ping until one would have thought it the veritable mount
itself. Then the city at its foot must be built. This was
soon accomplished by using the Second-gift cubes for the
houses. One, a temple, was larger, having several cubes,
and finished in a more lofty style with cylinders. When
asked what else was needed, one answered "Water," another,
"Men." Soon men (Second-gift beads and sticks) were
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 307
running toward the Bay, a large pan sunk to its rim in the
sand and filled with water, where ships and boats (folded
paper) were floating. But now comes the climax. Having
secured a toy volcano, it was placed in the crater of Mount
Vesuvius, touched with a match, and the fire, flying upward,
made it indeed realistic in effect. — Laura P. Charles, Lexing-
ton, Ky.
( Concluded next month.)
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD AMONG THE KINDERGARTEN EX
HIBITS.
The Louisville (Ky.) Kindergarten exhibit attracted
much attention during the summer. It illustrated the work
of one of the free kindergartens of that city, and was
largely typical of the work which this association aims to
accomplish. We bring this sketch of it to help those who
have studied it to retain its points. The plan covered a
full year's work, dividing the same into five general seasons:
First, the organizing work, which covered the first four
weeks of the kindergarten year: This time is spent in grad-
ually instituting law and order, and the children are al-
lowed to experience the terms and rules which go to secure
order. They learn the application of the principle that
there is a time and place for everything.
Second and third, the Thanksgiving season and Christ-
mas time are evolved from this first preliminary work, but
illustrating in each case some fundamental principle rather
than miscellaneous object teaching. The Christmas program
has this sentiment at the head: "Happiness is the result of
loving forethought." The steps by which the child should
learn to interpret this sentiment were {a) what the Creator
does to make man happy; {b) what father and mother do
for the children; {c) making of Christmas presents, to show
what children can do for others. In finding out what the
Creator has done to make his children happy, the stars,
moon, trees, flowers, and many other beautiful objects of
nature are illustrated. These in turn are applied in the
decorating of simple Christmas gifts. Among the latter
308 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
we find simple articles such as the children can make:
the paper bonbons, representing bright-colored fruits and
flowers; picture frames, blotting pads with decorated cover,
book marks, and letter boxes; some dainty lamp shades of
tissue muslins reminded us of the one made by Frau Froe-
bel, with the pressed ferns and flowers placed in between
the two layers of oiled paper, the light from the lamp
illuminating their delicate stems and leaves. The motto
underneath the exhibit of the great winter festival read:
A light snow fell, and the little stream
Ran very slow, as if in a dream;
The windows were covered with lace so white,
While the people slept through the winter's night.
Fourth, the midwinter or after-Christmas season is that
calculated for the more definite and formulative work.
Again a thought is taken for the point of sight, from which
all the details of work are radiated. Unity is made the
center point, and is considered under these subdivisions:
the relation of individual effort to the effort of a com-
munity; subordination of the individuals to the community,
— the many individuals working toward a common end;
and finally, many small things working together can attain
a large result. This treatment of the sentiment of //////]' is
very suggestive, and is a protection against the tendency
toward analysis. Color, form, and number are more di-
rectly dealt with in this department. There is a broad hint
here, that long preparation produces admirable results.
The children are led up gradually, and through life, to an
appreciation for the specific properties and qualities of
things. Each step is illustrated in many ways, before any
deduction is made. Many street lamps light the street,
many snowflakes cover the earth, and many rounds make a
ladder. Everywhere the purpose is made plain, that the
child should be led to rediscover the principle common to
life, and the same should never be presented as infor-
mation.
Fifth, the Easter thought is elaborated in flower and
plant study, of which the early spring of Louisville admits.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 3O9
The series of designs adapted from nature studies to art
forms is most interesting and original. The promise of the
bud, and its fulfiUment in twig, leaf, or blossom, blended
both sentiment and works in a most satisfactory manner.
The feeling and expectation of the children were wrought
out into forms of conventional art. This result could only
be reached after a long experience on the part of the chil-
dren,— experience with use of materials, familiarity with
natural objects, and above all else, the effort to express
these experiences in works of their own hands.
We found some good applications of paper folding in
the California kindergarten exhibit. Among others, a se-
ries of borders .was designed out of the circular folding.
Again, a large form was made up of folded rhombs radiat-
ing from a common center, shaded from the darkest point
at the center, through several tints, to a light halo around
the edge. There were also some excellent splashes of
water color in this exhibit, the work of the children,
whereby they crudely but truly represented the orange
poppy of their golden state. A beautiful, clear color was
secured, such as never fails to permeate the child with
strong and noble feeling.
There was a peculiar fitness in the fact that the exhibit
of the Silver-street California kindergarten told the story
of the "Seven Little Sisters." The photographs of this
school showed many nationalities, such as Mrs. Wiggin
has described in "Patsy," — pows of variegated hues. There
was a coincident in this study of the nations by the chil-
dren of the many nationalities. The usual kindergarten
materials were pressed into the service of telling these
stories in a graphic manner. Realistic houses were made
of the pine slats laid like boards and shingles, and many a
sturdy animal Vv'as cut from heavy cardboard and colored
to suit the taste, or, better, the observation of the child.
Certain graphic Indians revealed how little hands and
heads had struggled to overcome the resistance of scissors
and materials, and produce the noble red man of their con-
ception.
310 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The Pennsylvania state exhibit of school work we found
very comprehensive and well arranged. A unity of method
prevailed throughout the work, such as we do not find in
newer states. The city exhibits showed in some cases the
work from primary to university, including manual training,
cooking, sewing, and the kindergarten. The scheme of
public school sewing is thoroughly systematized and oper-
ated. The time will come when this work will have a more
direct application to life and its vicissitudes. Then old ma-
terials will be darned instead of new, and patches will be
sewed in order to redeem an old garment, instead of being
placed into a new muslin to show the stitches.
The Pittsburg public schools showed a series of paper
cutting and pasting in fabric designs. The plaids in Scotch
and American patterns, as well as figured calicoes and silks,
were reproduced very effectively in the color and cutting.
It must have evolved keen observation as well as a study of
color effects proportioned to the designs, for the boys and
girls who made these paper fabrics.
In the Massachusetts school exhibit we found less kin-
dergarten work than elsewhere, but plenty of substantial
volumes and statistics. Some original materials and de-
signs for sewing cards were represented.
In the Egyptian school exhibit we found woodwork, in-
laid with pearl and ivory, which revealed a long patience
and uncounted hours of labor. Another form of manual
training in this exhibit, which traced the peculiarity of the
country, was the cluster of reeds sharpened into pens.
Again, bronze and woodwork were found dedicated to fan-
tastic gods carved by students.
The exhibit of the kindergarten training school of Mrs.
Eudora Hailmann, of La Porte, Ind., showed an industry
and subjection of materials which is not found in much
other American work. The elaborate designs and progress-
ive patterns in paper folding, weaving, intertwining and
cutting, revealed an exhaustive study and effort to produce
not only geometric but artistic forms from most limited
materials. The black mounting boards, in some cases,
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 3II
threw the color designs into unique relief. The training of
eye and hand is a most certain result in each work.
A group of kindergartners commented upon the geomet-
ric sewing illustrated in the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus exhibit.
It is called the Lyschinska sewing, after Miss Mary Lys-
chinska of London, who claimed that the child should use
his needle from the first as he is expected to use it later on.
The oiled paper or cloth is used for this purpose, as the
stiff cardboard would break in placing the needle through
both holes at once. The child is taught to take the whole
stitch at once, and thereby learn the proper use of his tools.
A case of one hundred pieces of clay modeling was
placed in the Agricultural Building, illustrating the work of
the kindergarten babies in Montevideo, Uruguay, S. A.
Each bit of cup, or cap or mouse, had the touch of baby
fingers. It was without exception some of the most sin-
cere and honest clay modeling exhibited. The Spanish
child was not coerced, nor did it imitate the handiwork of
others. It told its own crude but natural story, subject to
the limitations of baby fingers.
In several instances we traced an effort to alternate the
opportunity for spontaneous, free drawing with that of me-
chanical and geometric work. In the compromises which
must necessarily be made in the higher grades, where boys
and girls have not had the early advantages in the primary
grades, this is a legitimate exercise. The time is fast com-
ing when there will cease to be a war between law and free-
dom, between discipline and spontaneity, for it will be
found that the spontaneously strong teacher will lead her
children into self-elected work and self-effort which shall
no longer necessitate the teaching of the law. Let the
teacher know the law, live it herself, and command the
freedom which is the fulfillment of the law. — A. H.
KINDERGARTEN CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL. — A TRUE STORY.
A visitor who drops into a kindergarten just before
Christmas is quite sure that something is going to happen.
312 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Either some important person is coming or they are about
to give some one a great surprise — perhaps both. The
children are very coy, and look at a visitor as if to say,
"We are not receiving j?/st fiozc ; at any other time we will
be most happy to see you." Such a coming together of
heads and whisperings one never sees or hears except at
Christmas times.
At the coming festival the mystery disappears. There
is no longer a secret to keep.
Each of these mischievous little bodies is like the merry
brown thrush, to whom the world is running over with joy.
It was at one of these festivals that the children sang
their Christmas songs, the last of which was that lovely one
— "Oh, see; the snow^ is falling fast!" Sure enough, the
snow was falling on the window panes, as if to say, "You
see, little ones, we're on time. While you have been sing-
ing "Somebody is coming," we have powdered the house
tops and streets, making ready for dear old Santa." Some-
body is coming with him: Jack Frost; "we feel his'icy
bi-eath!"
There was a huge Christmas tree in one corner of the
room, with everything on it that little hands can make.
The mammas looked at the tree as if to say, "There is
something there for me, I know." How these mammas do
like to get anything their little ones make!
The children had marched into the circle and were about
to hop and fly.^anything a bird can do, — when the ringing
of sleigh bells set every pair of hands and feet in motion.
Such a clapping of hands and stamping of feet, with —
"He's coming; he's coming!" But where? There was no
chimney in the room. There; there; don't you see? the
window is up! It is Santa! Don't you see his long white
hair and whiskers, and blue eyes? We know him; he has
been here before. Oh, if he would just come in!
Just here a voice, quite unlike any other voice, called
out: "Is this a kindergarten? If it is, Iwant to come in."
In another moment dear old Santa was in the midst of
as happy a set of children as he had ever met. While they
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 3I3
were singing "Dear Santa, now we greet }'Ou," he was danc-
ing, first with one and then another, and sometimes with a
child in each arm.
After a time the piano said, "We must have quiet now;
Santa may have something to say." "I have come to this
kindergarten," said he, "because I love it, and I love all
bus}' little bodies. You help me. When I'm with }^ou, I
feel young and strong, like a child myself. Now I would
like to see what you have been doing for your parents.
When the children remember their parents, I have more
time to look after the little ones." At this the children
gathered around their Christmas tree, and bursting into
song, they sang:
Oh, see the branches bending low!
We'll lighten them before we go.
Please, Santa, do, before they fall,
Read the names, with love to all.
Say how these busy little hands
Have woven mats in single strands.
Have sewed and folded every day;
Surely we'd rather U'ork than play!
See, papa's shaving case is there,
And mamma's basket, too, somewhere;
And all the pretty things you see
Here and there upon the tree.
They are, dear Santa, all our own,
Made in our kindergarten home.
Loves our motto, — see it on the wall,-*-
Love for each other, love for all!
The presents were taken from the tree and handed to
Santa, who read the names, giving each mother her own
and Papa's. Then such a time of hand shaking! The
mothers looked at each other as much as to say, " I can
hardly believe my ow^neyes!"
. The piano spoke again. How these kindergarten pianos
do talk! What it said the children understood, and, falling
into line, marched onto the circle.
When all was quiet one of the teachers said: "Dear
Santa, here in this bag are some presents the children have
314 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
made for the Bethel Mission, and here are some baskets
filled with candies. These they have made for the chil-
dren's hospital. They would like to have you distribute
them." Just then a little boy with clean face and hands,
dressed in calico shirt, pants all too short for that winter
morning, and shoes that were worn but nicely blackened,
walked up to Santa, who asked: "What is it. my little
man?" John was a bashful boy; while looking up into
Santa's kind face he forgot all about himself. Running his
hands into the pockets of his pants, he brought out a bright
new nickel. "And what is this for?" "I want you," said
John, "to give this to somebody else for me."
Laying his hand on John's head, Santa exclaimed: "Such
a little boy with such a big heart!"
Throwing the bag over his shoulder, with the baskets of
candy, dear old Santa Claus said good-by, and disappeared.
St. Louis, December, i8go.
A LETTER FROM PEKING, CHINA.
You will perhaps be much astonished to get a letter
from Peking, the far-away capital city of the Celestial
Land. You probably have read of the growing work of
Miss Howe in Japan and Miss Bartlett in Turkey. There
is no reason why there should not be just such an opening
in China; and if ever a land needs the influence of the kin-
dergarten it is this land of wooden people. Children are
the same the world over, and I am sure, could you see the
dear little bright faces, and the joy they take in pretty and
bright things, you would feel, with us, the importance of
getting an influence in their lives at an age when they can
be molded. Mrs. Ament, of our station here, has just re-
turned from a visit to Japan, and I am going to send an arti-
cle to you, or rather, a paragraph from a letter she has writ-
ten to a missionary paper. It sets our needs in a more vivid
light than I could. She says: "I have just returned from
Japan, and while there my feeling about the need of our
work for a kindergarten and a system of free kindergartens
was confirmed by what I saw of Miss Howe's work. We
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 315
have long realized the waste of power in giving the world,
the flesh, and the devil an opportunity to plant and nourish
bad seed for years before we take up the work of instruct-
ing children. We cannot be content with drawing into our
day schools girls and boys of seven years. We must take
the little ones who come pulling at their sisters' dress
sleeves, and w^ith the help of all the beautiful songs, plays,
and gifts, the occupations of the kindergarten, with God's
help we will develop the upward tendencies, and discover
his image in these little hearts. To do this great work it
needs experienced teachers. But let them understand the
situation. There are multitudes of children waiting to be
taught; not waiting in the sense that they know for what
they are waiting, but appealing to us by the possibilities of
their natures and the deadening atmosphere in which they
are growing up. There will be for years no paywg constitu-
ency, but free kindergartens are now a part, an essential
part, of the benevolent work of our cities in Christian lands,
and they should be in foreign lands. We need a trained
kindergartner, that she may prepare a corps of teachers
from among the Christian women to carry on the work
in out-stations and in various parts of the great cities occu-
pied by our 'seven churches in Asia.' What Miss Howe
has done for Japan needs doing for China. May God
raise up another woman full of love for children, no mat-
ter what the environment, and with the courage of her con-
victions! There was never a country which so needed as
China the opportunity for individual development of the
thinking and inventive powers. Her scholars have for cen-
turies been run into the same narrow mold, by the system
of memorizing now in use. For three years the patient
pupil learns by rote, with no word of explanation, the vari-
ous books of the curriculum, after which he leaves the cut-
and-dried comments upon these books. And this is called
education, — a process which maybe draws out patience and
a sort of memory, but little besides. What wonder that
there is little investigating, so little reasoning, even about
the Gospel when practiced in its simplicity! An intelli-
3l6 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
gent question — how welcome it would be to the faithful
preacher, as he stands day after day in the street chapel!
But there is no task more difficult to the unaccustomed
mind than to discriminate between truth and error, to
swing aloof from tradition and usage and look at the merits
of a new ethical question or system. With weary pains
and earnest prayers the evangelist gathers the company of
believ^ers. Let tis take the childre?is hearts at a time when
it is easy to believe, and by love, gentleness, and faith in
them lead them by the hand into the green pastures in-
tended for them."
[The above appeal is so earnest that the Kindergarten College gladly
offers a year's tuition and every possible added help in the way of prep-
aration to any young woman who is willing to consecrate herself to
this much-needed work, and whose church denomination or friends will
agree to send to the field. Any communication on the subject may be
addressed to Chicago Kindergarten College, lo Van Buren St., Chicago.
— EHzabefh Harrison . ]
THE SNOWFLAKES.
1. Out from Gloud Land, one cold day.
Some feathery snowflakes floated away;
Sailed through the air in joyous mood.
Hoping to do the brown earth some good.
2. North Wind met them on their track.
Tried to drive little snowflakes back;
On they fluttered, calling in glee,
"Old Mr. North Wind can't catch me!"
3. Little Jack Frost had been playing around,
Nipping all the flowers he found,
When down to the earth came the flakes so gay,
Looking about for a place to stay.
4. "Here is the spot!" cried the bright little elves;
"We'll help the flowers a bit, ourselves."
So over the flower roots, long before night.
They spread a thick blanket, fair and white.
— S.J. Mulford, St. Pmd.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
ASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN. — NO. IV.
( Wtriiten for the "Kindergarten Magazine.^'')
HOW THE GOBLINS KEPT CHRISTMAS.
COPYRIGHTED.
It was Christmas, eve, and the ground was covered with a
mantle of snow which sparkled and glistened in the moon-
light. The branches of the trees snapped and crackled
under the weight of snow, for the feathery flakes were fall-
ing thick and fast. Riding on these flakes of snow were
Gq^It-ti s ^n
some little goblins, who had been invited to attend a grand
snowball party to be held in the woods; and no wonder the
branches snapped and crackled, as the goblins crowded on
to those slender twigs and pelted the goblins below with
miniature snowballs! These mischievous goblins did not
only pelt the goblins, but also the Earth folk who were pass-
ing on their way to the village beyond the woods. One old
lady received a snowball right on the top of a fine new
bonnet; and when she opened her umbrella to keep the
snow off, the goblins clambered on top, until it became so
heavy that the poor old lady could scarcely hold it, and
she had to close it up. "Dear me!" she thought, "this is a
3i8
THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
terrible snowstorm; I must hurry home before it becomes
worse." And all the way home those naughty goblins
pelted her, till she was covered all over with snowflakes,
and looked like a veritable Santa Claus. Soon, however,
they tired of this, and one who seemed a leader for the rest,
said:
"Goblins, this is Christmas eve; and where shall we
spend Christmas day?"
Just then, one little goblin who was inclined to be
dreamy, glanced up at the Moon, which was beaming
brightly.
"Let us go to the Moon," he said, as if going to the
or the. Ploon
Moon was an everyday occurrence; and in truth it must
have been, for in the twinkling of an eye all those goblins
mounted on a moonbeam and went up to the Moon. What
fun they had up there, as they scampered in and out of the
round holes they found on the Moon, clambering up and
down the walls leading to those holes, and playing hide
and seek in the shadows. The shadows on the Moon are as
dark as night, so that it was not easy for the goblins to
find each other. Some of the holes, or "craters" as they
are called, were joined together like a string of beads, and
the goblins amused themselves by jumping from one crater
to another.
As the Moon is so much smaller than the Earth, every-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 319
thing weighs six times less. Therefore the goblins were as
light as feathers on the Moon, and instead of walking they
could scarcely keep themselves down. Their feet seemed
to have wings on them, for they were no sooner down than
they were up. Jumping was a very easy matter, and the
goblins found that they could jump across from one crater
to another, though some were half a mile apart. As
for jumping over the craters, that was the easiest thing in
the world; and the goblins even scrambled up to the top of
some of the highest mountains; for there are mountains in
A cxafpT o-n t^e Moorx. Called Kepler
the Moon, as you will see in the map. They thought it
would be very great fun to play at ball with the rocks they
found at the foot of the mountains. Imagine how sur-
prised they were when they found that they could throw
these rocks six times further than on Earth. This was
nearly the destruction of one of the goblins, for a rock was
thrown at him from the top of a crater, and had that goblin
been a foot nearer, he would have been utterly demolished.
You see these rocks weigh six times less on the Moon, and
therefore go much further; but the goblin had forgotten
this, though fortunately he missed his mark.
What a good time Santa Claus would have had on the
Moon! for he could have carried enough presents for all
320 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the little girls and boys he knew, if he had been living up
there; but as it is, he has to drive through the air in a snow
chariot piled up with good things, and when he finds the
houses where good little boys and girls live, he drops his
gifts down the chimney, or gets the Wind to blow open the
front door, whilst he leaves them in the front hall.
After the goblins tired of jumping over craters, and
scrambling up mountains, and throwing rocks at each other,
they started on a trip to find the "Man in the Moon"; but
he was not to be found anywhere. The goblins climbed up
the Apennines and scrambled down the side of a crater
called Copernicus; they peeped into crater Tycho, and even
ventured into the Ocean of Storms; but finally they reached
the Sea of Cold, where they made a wonderful discovery.
Right in the middle of a crater they found a frozen image
of the "Man in the Moon," and beside him was a board, on
which the following lines were written:
"This is not the "Man in the Moon," but what he would
have become had he stayed on the Moon. He carved this
figure out of the rocks, as a terrible warning to people who
want to live on the Moon. He left the Moon because he
could not find air to breathe nor water to drink. He could
not hear, and worse than all, he could not speak. This
would have been the death of him; and rather than live in
such a country, he preferred to go to Mars, where he can
be found upon inquiry at the Bureau of Information."
When the goblins read this terrible warning, they fell
all over themselves trying to escape from the Moon. The
alarm was given, and in the twinkling of an eye the goblins
were down on Earth again. On their way they met Santa
Claus, who was returning home in his snow chariot, and he
gladly gave them a lift, till he landed them safely at their
home in the woods again. Mary Proctor.
To LEARN to comprehend nature in the child, — is not
that to comprehend one's own nature and the nature of
mankind? The love of childhood in its widest sense, — is it
not a love of humanity? — Fricdrich Froebel.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 32 1
A SECULARIST PLEA FOR SANTA CLAUS.
The following is taken from an exhaustive article in
which the myth of Christmas is traced through the history
of all peoples to our present time, written by Mr. H. E. O.
Heinemann, who is an unquestioned authority on folk lore
as well as student of race philosophy:
"And if the children are to be taught to love the Christ
who himself stands as a personification of principle, what
better method is there to reach their hearts than to tell
them of some representative of the Redeemer, whose mis-
sion is to make happy all who are good or try to be so; to
carry out the promise of love to all mankind, and the weak
and helpless in particular? All we accomplish by talking
to children about abstract principle is to rob them of the
poetry of childhood. We neglect the most important part
of education, the education of the feelings, by neglecting
to furnish objects on which to exercise the feelings. And
when such children grow up, their hearts will be barren,
their minds closed to all that is good and great; they will
be dissatisfied with everything around them and with them-
selves. For as their hearts are sterile, so they look upon
all around them as equally desert. It is idle to talk about
the dangers of filling the minds of children with supersti-
tion. With the proper development of the understanding
the symbols will disappear, but the good effect they have
had will remain through life. Poetry is the life of the
child, fancy is its kingdom. Rob the child of these and
you kill its heart. No matter what a giant it may become
in intellect, the motive power for that intellect, that would
propel it in the direction of that which is good and great
and beautiful, will be wanting. For however we may flatter
ourselves that we are entirely governed by our understand-
ing,— if it is flattering to think we have developed one part
of our nature at the expense of the rest, — it still remains
true that every thought is begotten by our feelings, that no
thought leaves our brains but what is dictated by our
heart. Hence the immeasurable importance of the educa-
tion of the feelings. The feelings cannot be educated by
Vol. 6-21
322 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
dry precept, but only by exercising them upon objects ex-
ternal to ourselves; and it is the duty of the educator to
furnish proper objects to the child so as to arouse and cul-
tivate the proper emotions.
"Therefore, leave to the children the myth of Santa
Claus. He is to them the representative of the Eternal
Good, by whatever name the different creeds may call it.
It is to the source of all that is good, that the child extends
its thanks for the happiness bestowed at Christmas. And
if after years of faith in the powerful and benevolent being,
the mind arrives at a realization of the fact that it has been
believing in a phantom, it will appreciate that love of the
parents, brothers, sisters, and friends, which has exerted
itself to bring joy to the child for the sole purpose of mak-
ing it happy, with no selfish object, no expectation of reward,
actuated simply and purely by love, by that lofty emotion
which is the foundation of the religion preached by Him in
whose honor Christmas is today celebrated. And the heart
of the child will be filled, in return, with the same lofty
emotion that showered joy upon it before it could properly
appreciate. The place where, in its mind, Santa Claus
stood in all his reverend kindliness will be occupied by
those emotions and principles of love toward God and man.
The lesson that Christmas is designed to convey will be
stamped forever on the characters of the men and women
who received the lesson in their childhood, and will form
the better part of their natures. If those who rail against
superstition, if the fathers and mothers who are ashamed to
speak to their children of Santa Claus because they are told
that children must know the truth about everything and
not be fed on poetry and myths, if they really intend, at
Christmas time, to inculcate as firmly as possible the lesson
of love, and not simply blind adherence to a denomination
or a creed consisting of words that will be but half under-
stood unless there is a responsive chord within their breasts,
— then let them not deprive education of one of its most
potent and beneficial helps by destroying the poetry of
childhood and of life."
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 323
ROUND-TABLE CHAT AMONG KINDERGARTNERS.
"It is not a question of telling about Santa Claus or not
telling about him, which troubles me in my Christmas
plans. I know that it is my business to create the desire
for impersonal giving. The mystery which always sur-
rounds an impersonal act is the Christmas charm. But is
not that a very high form of development?"
"The little book of the 'Christ-Tales' has helped me to
present the stories to the children in a gradual advancement
of the thought, and to present them in such a manner that
the children may draw their own conclusions. If we arouse
the feeling of unbounded good-will in the children it will
express itself in one way or another. If the children get a
conception of a great univ^ersal good-will, they will formu-
late that. They may call it a Santa Claus or the Christ
Child or Kris Kringle. The mistake is when we formulate
these things for them."
"A mother told me this week that her little daughter
has been taught to think of Santa Claus as a dear old man
like her grandfather. Whenever she sees a white-bearded
man she calls him a Santa Claus. This seems an external
point, which should not be emphasized so much as the more
essential thought of the giving."
" In the Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus exhibit at the Fair, the
Christmas keeping is fully illustrated. Here the children
take an active part in the Christmas preparation. They
attend the man to the forest or market to secure the Christ-
mas tree. They help place it and decorate it. They
share the pleasure of making and giving gifts. In their
case the good Empress Friedrich and her daughter come
as the recipient givers and distribute gifts. After the holi-
day pleasure is over, the tree is parted into branches for
home decorations, and distributed among the children,
while the central trunk is utilized in the woodworking of
the institution."
"In selecting materials for your Christmas work, refrain
from tinsel effects if possible. Wherever the child's homely
324 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
effort can furnish the ornamentation, let that be sufficient.
Simple and truly useful articles are always to be preferred,
since the after-valuation of them has much to do with the
Christmas lesson of giving. There should be an appro-
priateness in the gift to the person remembered, and con-
versations about what to give mother, or what to make for
John, will in many cases arouse the child's own sense of
fitness. Let joy be put into the work, and do not hurry it
all up the last moment to such an extent that the pleasure
in doing is lost. In the larger kindergartens, where many
children are being Santa Claus, the finishing of the work is
left to the assistants. Wherever it is possible, have this
finishing done by the children or in their presence. The
grouping of families of Christmas workers is a happy
thought, the same group coming together each time for the
Christmas work."
There is nothing more certain than that a man cannot
know Christ and the fullness of his errand, who lives the
life of a hermit. Moral instruction in our schools should
fit the child for a life full of activity and of every manly
nature. He cannot hope to escape from the evil that is in
the world. The tares grow with the wheat; the perishable
flourishes side by side with the imperishable. Only by
painstaking, persistent culture of the conscience can the
child be led to distinguish between that which at the last
shall be gathered for the burning, and that which shall be
garnered to fill the storehouse of infinite existence. Our
duty is with today. I believe it consists very largely in
solving the problem of putting the best teacher possible
into the little schoolhouses on the prairie, by the cross-
roads, among the mountains, and in the village; for there
in the district school is to be determined the destiny of the
American nation. — Henry Sabin.
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NURSERY.
THE BABY.
I.
The right care of the baby is the "science of sciences
and the art of arts," which is Aristotle's definition of phi-
losophy. In this study of the baby we will treat him as an
infant philosopher in whose unconscious mind philosophy
is to be nurtured and the science of the soul given practical
demonstration in the human life. So the care of the young
babe seems to us to be of the utmost importance, as his fu-
ture power for good depends in no small degree upon the
wisdom of his parents in caring for him during the first
seven years of his human life. It is the period when the
psychological atmosphere is formed around the child, and
the harmonious unfoldment of his whole earth life promoted
or retarded.
Of the prenatal conditions it is not in the province of this
journal to speak. This only can we say: when taking up
the sacred mission of parenthood the man and the woman
should seek to unite the wisdom of the ages with the desires
of the heart, the well-being of the child constituting the
primal motive, that the young philosopher may come as an
invited guest and receive joyous welcome, wholesome com-
forts, and peaceful surroundings. We know of no better
preparatory reading than some of the so-called apocryphal
books of the New Testament, which tell the story of the
simple, holy lives of the parents of the Virgin Mother. She
was conceived without sin; that is, the lusts of the flesh had
no part in her conception. It is from these uncanonical
writings that the Roman church promulgated the doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception, which refers entirely to the
conditions under which the Virgin herself was conceived.
It was not a iniraailotis conception, but an immaculate one.
The great artist, Giotto, has made this the subject of one of
326 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
his immortal frescoes on one of the walls of the cloister of
the Church of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence. The an-
gels of heaven are represented as rejoicing that a man and
a woman are found united in marriage who have consciously
determined to conceive a child after the desire of the Spirit
only, the unimpassioned flesh being the media through
which Spirit can manifest itself in absolute purity. Hence
the immaculate conception of the Virgin, and through her
the miraculous conception of the Christ.*
The young philosopher having arrived and caught his
breath, wrap him in old, soft white flannel, and lay him
aside for two or three hours, or until deep breathing is thor-
oughly established; then gently oil him all over with olive
oil, and tenderly wash him with a pure vegetable soap, in
soft water, at a temperature near his own, and dry him with
old soft linen.
The babe's clothing is very important, and should be
selected with the idea of his perfect comfort. The simpler
the clothing the prettier it is for the young child, for the
soul hovers closely about a babe, and beautifies it as no tri-
umph of the dressmaker's art can. In fact, ruffles, laces,
and embroideries cover up or cloud over the innate, inborn
beauty of the child.
Carefully adjust a band of old, soft linen around the ab-
domen, which can be the band of the "pinning blanket" as
well. Always have at hand an old, soft piece of white wool
stuff to wrap the babe in, and undress, wash, and dress
it with this loosely wrapped about it, that the surface
temperature may be kept as even as possible and always
warm.
Over the pinning blanket there is need of only two gar-
ments,— two gowns simply made, with long sleeves, one
yard in length. One of these gowns should be of French
mull, the other of soft white wash-flannel; and for conven-
ience to both nurse and child, fit the mull gown inside the
*This is a favorite subject of thegreatest of the old masters, who have immortalized
their names by painting the mother of the Virgin Mary, Anna, surrounded by angelic
children, who rejoice that one of their number can tind, through her, a pure avenue to
human life.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 32/
flannel one, the two wrong sides coming together, that only
a smooth surface may come against the babe's skin. Seams
and wrinkles are not conducive to the comfort of the new-
born. Until the babe is two months old it needs only these
four garments on at one time, besides the diaper and socks,
and an old soft shawl to wrap it in.
As soon as our young philosopher is washed and dressed
he will need to be fed; and it is to be hoped that his own
natural food is in readiness for him. He should be kept
near the mother day and night, that she may nurture him
with her soul's magnetism, which can best manifest itself
through this physical contact in the early years of the
child's life.
While the babe should be near the mother he should
not be meddled with, not even looked at, beyond the abso-
lute necessities of his helpless state. He has been invited
into the household, and should be treated with the consid-
erate respect that is due a distinguished guest. We do not
pry open the eyelids of a guest to see the color of the eyes,
nor pinch his nose to change the shape of it, nor pull his
cheeks, nor chuck his chin; then why, oh, why, mother, do
you permit these indignities to be practiced upon your
helpless babe? He should be treated from the very first as
if he were a Plato, his person and his individuality re-
spected to the uttermost. If you do not respect him, and
do not insist that others do the same, be not surprised if he
does not respect himself nor you later in life.
The psychological atmosphere that is being formed
about the young child assists or retards the harmonious
unfoldment of the will; therefore it is very necessary that
one strong mind should prevail in the home, and intelli-
gently brood over the souls of the children of the family.
This mind should be the mother's, whose soul sphere is
provided with everything needful — if she is a true spiritual
mother, as was Anna to Mary, and Mary to Jesus — for the
babe's physical and mental nourishment; and in this spirit-
ual atmosphere the child will "grow and wax strong"
month by month, year by year.
328 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
If the psychological conditions are harmonious, the
babe will be quiet and sleep twenty hours out of the
twenty-four, the first six weeks of its life. It will cry a
little, an instinctive method of exercising the diaphragm,
expanding the lungs, and strengthening the action of the
heart; but the difference between this instinctive cry and
one of pain or unrest will soon become apparent to the
mother.
The babe should not realize that it is in our bustling
world before it is six months old; therefore it should not
be kissed, nor squeezed, nor tossed in play, but should be
allowed to coo and kick and grow in peace, the wise
mother brooding over it almost silently, guarding it with a
divinely inspired love, sternly holding in abeyance all fool-
ish emotions. The reasons for all this are that the child's
physical health may become firmly established; so the
nervous equilibrium must be maintained that he may
peacefully grow into his new surroundings; thus he be-
comes self-centered, later on will become self-acting. Also,
because he is a divine entity, an individual soul, and as such
is entitled to all the sacred rights of manhood.
Treat the young child as if he were a prince of the
house of David and you his queen mother, the custodian of
the future ruler, — king and master of himself. — An7ia N.
Kendall.
CONFERENCE OVER HOME PROBLEMS.
[All questions of this nature will be answered from month to month by Miss Frances
E. Newton, whose work with Chautauqua students in the kindergarten department is
well known. Parents are invited to send their queries by mail to the Kindergarten
Magazine.]
What makes children restless' on rainy, stormy days?
In rare cases it may be due to an extremely sensitive
nervous organization easily affected by a change 'of atmos-
phere; but usually it is due to far more healthy and natural
causes. All out of doors, the illimitable reaches of sky, un-
stinted liberty to express in action or sound the joy that
healthful normal life brings and the life that healthful joy
brings, — these are the child's on pleasant days. His whole
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 329
nature responds unconsciously to the length and breadth,
the depth and height of his environment; 'tis his "natural
way of living," and in it his very restlessness becomes rest
at the center, because he is in harmony with the laws of his
being. On stormy days he is "cribbed, cabined, and con-
fined." The four walls of the house seem to imprison his
free spirit, and if he be not led to some action which will
give him the same i?mer sense of freedom and rest which he
feels out of doors, he will rebel simply because he cannot
help it; he is compelled to violate the most active princi-
ple of his being in force at this time, by being made, tacitly
or otherwise, to "keep quiet." This impulse to noise and
action is God's finger pointing out his inmost needs. It is
his mother's privilege to supply them.
Do you believe in the topsy-turvy romps which men invariably in-
stigate in the nursery?
We heartily commend the nursery romps in which the
men of a family take an active part. The only caution
which we suggest is that the romps gradually subside into
the quiet story or cozy talk before the children's eyes grow
too bright or their cheeks too red with overexcitement.
Every such good time in that "together" way is an extra
strand in the golden cord which binds the hearts of fathers
and children together. The influence is twofold: the fa-
ther's manhood is loftier and purer every time he breathes
that child-life atmosphere; and the children feel themselves
understood, strengthened, and completed' in their father's
love and cheer.
What kind of "liieces" would you let children speak at school?
We object most seriously to any public exhibitions of
children. They are apt to give birth to a painful self-con-
sciousness in sensitive children — in those of truly delicate,
appreciative natures; or to over-boldness and egotism in
those who have been led by undue praise to look upon any
small power in their possession as a means of winning ad-
miration and applause from others. The beautiful flower-
like unconsciousness of self, the essence of all true courage,
330 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
is destroyed, and cannot be brought back any more than
the bloom of a peach that has been roughly handled.
Nevertheless, if the present rules of the school are such
that "pieces" must be spoken, let them be on some theme
in which the boy or girl is vitally interested, something
which he loves so dearly that he delights to talk about it;
he will then more readily forget himself.
My boy is too studious, and is only six years old. He draws and
looks at pictures and reads all the time. He is getting round-shouldered.
Shall we let him do it?
May not your boy be taught in some pleasant, agreeable
way that there is a time for everything, — a time to dress, a
time to eat, and a time to sleep; a time to exercise, a time
to read, and a time to study; a time to work and a time to
play? May he not learn that in nature there is temperance
in all things? Perhaps he could be influenced to be like
some of his heroes who did things they did not like to do,
for the sake of future beneficial results. If he could get
some idea in a natur-al, logical way that his future depends
upon his present; if you can make that future a real thing
to him, he will be more apt to make the necessary present
sacrifice of self in order some day to be the man he now
thinks he would like to be. Of course his ideals will grow
as he grows. — Frances E. Neivton.
THE KINDERGARTEN FOR THE MOTHER.
I wish all mothers could see something of the ivork in
the kindergarten. Many of them go only on special occa-
sions, when they see the children playing games and singing
their little songs. And they go away with the idea that the
kindergarten is a "lovely place for the children, where they
are amused so prettily." They have little idea of the care-
ful study a good teacher gives to each child's character, to
the careful following out of traits to observe their motives
and effect.
I became interested in a little fellow whom I had the
pleasure of observing in my almost daily visits last year to
a kindergarten.
MGTMEMS D£EARTJ^LENT. 33 1
I knew something of the family affairs. The father had
died when the three children were very young, and had left
them very poor. The mother was a woman of fine educa-
tion,— fine rather than practical, — and moreover, had a
voice which gave great promise. Giving lessons from morn-
ing till night, anxious that her children should receive a
good education, it was more than uphill work for her. In
that house jokes were unknown, frolics unheard of.
A wealthy relative sent the little boy to the kindergar-
ten for a year. He was a very industrious little fellow, but
so unimaginative a child I had never seen; and as for a
joke, he seemed to have no sense of humor whatever, at
first. But you may be sure it did not take very long in that
flock of bright, sunshiny chicks to develop in him a decided
sense of fun and the keenest appreciation of anything in
the way of a joke.
The days spent in the kindergarten were for him very
bright spots in a life which, I am sure, was rather dull at
home. And he changed so from a grim, sober little chap,
into such a lively, happy child, that I had more faith than
ever in kindergarten training.
It does not take long for a good teacher to discover
laziness or the lack of a bump of order. One day I was
watching a tableful of little folk who were doing some
rather difficult work with the blocks. As I watched them I
noticed how attentive some of them were to the teacher
when she was giving the directions. There were two chil-
dren who did not listen, but who watched to see what the
others did with their blocks, and then copied. The teacher,
whose eyes were watchful of every pair of little hands, soon
told them they must work for themselves and listen to her;
and then I saw that it was not because they did not know
how, but because it was easier to do the other way. In this
way children are taught not only to work, but to work zvell,
and to think for themselves. A friend of mine always de-
clares that her distaste for mathematics came from the care-
less manner in which she was taught the multiplication
table, or rather, only half taught it.
332 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Mother love blinds many to the faults of their children.
Often, could they talk frankly with the kindergartner about
the children, they would find much to help them in the
home training. All mothers wish to make their children
good, to build a good foundation for the work in after life;
but a mother's life is generally so full of cares and perplexi-
ties that she often fails to see the good qualities as well as
the ones not so good in her child's character. There are
many mothers who are nearly always overwearied, and so
tired from the care of babies all day and babies all night,
and the flood of family sewing, that it is all they can do to
take care of the little bodies and trust to God for the rest.
And to these the kindergarten is the greatest blessing, for
the kindergartner goes to her little circle fresh from a good
night's rest, ready to develop all that is good in her little
flock. So, in a way, the mother receives training from the
kindergartner as well as the children. — Nellie Nelson Ams-
de/i.
SHOULD SANTA GLAUS BE BANISHED FROM OUR HOMES?
It has so often been urged, of late, that we harm our
children by cultivating their faith in a saint who does not
exist, and then leaving them disappointed, and doubtful of
our veracity, when they discover that there is no Santa
Claus, — that it has grown to be quite a vital question.
What and how much shall we tell our little ones in regard
to the giver of their Christmas surprises and pleasures?
That there should be surprises, mysteries, and secrecy,
is indispensable to a right enjoyment of this feature of
Christmas keeping. Even we grown people are anxious
that our gifts should have the charm of fulfilling a wish
which the one who receives them was never conscious of
having expressed. Children take twice as much pleasure in
trifles that come to them unexpectedly, as in greater things
they have felt sure of getting.
We also — all of us — feel like giving the mystery, the
delightful spirit of the season, a name. It is not that we
forget Him whose nativity we are celebrating. It is rather
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 333
a feeling, born of the blessed time, of wishing to put away
ourselves as much as possible. We should like to smuggle
in our gifts without appearing on the scene at all, and to
turn off any thanks with — "Oh, it was Santa Claus who
brought it!" It is this in a great degree that makes the
saint precious to us, long after we have learned that he is
not a real person.
But when our little tots of three or four come to us and
say, "Where do the presents come from?" what is it best
to tell them? Suppose we tell them the plain and un-
adorned truth, — that the presents come from father, mother,
brothers, or sisters? Then will follow at once the question,
"Where did they get them from?" Now unless we can
evade this, and "deceive" them again, it will break up one
of our oldest traditions, — viz., that children should be kept
as long as possible in happy ignorance that "pennies"
serve any useful purpose besides spinning round and round
on the table, and falling with a pleasant jingle. It seems to
me we should be particularly loath to let any thought of
money mingle with their Christmas thoughts. Of course
this is a matter of feeling, possibly of sentimental feeling.
I know I should consider it sacrilege even now to criticise
my Christmas gifts, or speculate on what they cost, while
many people think it perfectly natural and allowable.
Different legends have solved or increased the problem
in different ways. The people in some parts of Germany
tell their little ones that the Christ child returns to earth
and brings the Christmas tree and presents to good chil-
dren. With them it is an indispensable part of the celebra-
tion to have a manger, with a figure representing the Christ
child, under the tree.
This would seem at first sight to be the best way of pre-
senting the matter to our children. It would then be merely
enlarging the idea, when they learned, as they grew older,
that every good thing comes from God. But perhaps the
people who keep most staunchly to this custom, are them-
selves responsible if we shrink from it. They speak of
and apostrophize the Deity with a familiarity and an ac-
334 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
cumulation of endearing diminutives that seem to us shock-
ingly irreverent, and make us tremble lest we should lead
our little ones to picture the Savior as a wooden doll who
comes to life once a year and brings a Christmas tree and
presents to good children.
A little one of three or four or five years cannot realize
anything except what he sees. When he says his little
prayer at bedtime, he understands only that it is some won-
derfully sweet verse which it is a privilege to repeat at
mother's knee. It affects him as solemn music does, with-
out his knowing why. His religion must consist in loving
and being kind to father, mother, and friends. His idea of
divine love must grow out of his faith in his parents' love.
You can no more teach a child to be pious before you teach
him to be good, than you can set him on his legs and
expect him to walk, before he is strong enough to sit up.
The result will be disastrous in either case. In the former,
he will in all probability be a hypocrite; in the latter, he is
likely never to walk at all.
Why should he not for a time believe as heartily in
Santa Claus as he does in the characters of his fairy tales?
Has any boy or girl ever accused us of deception, when he
or she became old enough to know that there are no
fairies? Did they love the fairies any the less?
Long after they are old enough to understand hard
facts, they prefer to take them tucked away in a fable or
an allegory. No one ever dreamed of calling ^sop a liar,
and no one would ever have dreamed of reading him if he
had not stated self-evident truths in a new and attractive
way. We none of us think less highly of "Pilgrim's Prog-
ress" because we know that "Christian" was not one par-
ticular man, but merely a type of Christians in general.
Our Lord himself taught in parables. Are not his
teachings the more forcible? Many and unreasonable as
the criticisms on the Bible are, has anyone ever exclaimed
"How can I have faith when this Man has deceived me?
history gives no record of any king's sending his servants
out into the highway to bid guests to his table"?
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 335
I said before that Santa Claus ought to be considered a
personification of the spirit of Christmas. In this way we
need never lose our faith in him, for he will never lose his
power. And instead of depriving our children of the
pretty fancy, I think we should let them keep it as long as
they can. They will hardly become skeptical on the sub-
ject until they go to school. At any rate, a mother will
soon detect it, if the busy little brain begins to wonder if
"Santa Claus isn't Papa." If the child in question is as
ardent an admirer of his father as most children are, this
will be a pleasant surprise rather than the reverse, a new
* dignity added to "Papa's" many perfections. A few words
from his mother will be sure to dispel any disappointment.
And then will come the promise, "Now that you are
such a great boy as to have found out who Santa Claus is,
you shall help trim the tree this year!" Oh, the delight, to
a child, of seeing it all done for the first time! the tree
made fast, the pretty globes, candy boxes, and other orna-
ments, all to be supplied with strings or wire; apples and
nuts to be covered with gold and silver foil (to make it
complete, there must be the "initiation," — i. e., a bit of gold
foil clapped. onto the little novice's nose); then hanging
all these beautiful things on the tree! Surely, in the new
helper's opinion, no tree ever looked quite as nice as this
one! And he must hang these gorgeous birds low down, so
that little sister can see them. That last sentence ex-
presses it all. The true spirit of Santa Claus has entered
into the boy. His delight in Christmas is greater than it
ever was before, and the thought that perhaps he, even he,
can add to the perfection of what he considers the most
perfect festival in all the year, has crowded out any latent
feeling of being ill used because there is no Santa Claus,
and put something sweet and pure and good in its place.
And so, till we can replace the dear old saint by a
better one, let us be true to him, and devote the coming
year to instilling into our children the true belief in him and
his good works. — Ida S. Harrhijrto7i, Hamilton, N. Y.
336 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
THE LESSON OF THE WINTER BOUGHS.
I have been thinking of something of late that has given
a great deal of pleasure to children in the past, and which
may be of use to some mother who has restless little ones
to be amused during the stormy, wintry days.
There is almost always to be found standing by some
window of the house a tree whose bud-tipped branches are
near enough the glass to be watched by the keen-eyed boys
and girls. This tree may be a source of profit as well as.
entertainment, if the mother wishes.
By November the buds will have donned their winter
overcoats, and the little folks will enjoy studying the fall *
fashions from the window. Each child may choose a par-
ticular branch for his or her "very own," and learn from it,
day by day, many lessons. The buds may be imagined to
have this motto: "Face to the sun, no matter what comes;"
and the brave little fellows will excite both pity and admi-
ration as the rough winds toss them about.
Then their characteristics may be noted and commented
upon, and the special providence by which they are kept
alive cannot fail to impress the childish minds. A very
large or conspicuous bud may be considered a special hero,
and given a name, and there may be many a story woven
about it, as it sways about or taps on the window pane.
By February, a branch may be broken off and brought
into the house. Being put into a large jar or pitcher which
is kept filled with water in a sunny window, the children
will watch eagerly as the buds unfold, sometimes into leaf-
buds, and again into fairylike blossoms. — M. H. J.
The child mind is an epoch-maker. When adults look
back upon childhood they note what happened on this or
that occasion, and chronicle the stages of growth by some
special experience. Why not make a Christmas eve a
"special epoch" by the reading of some wonder-stirring
tale or historical sketch of grandfather's day? Every
Christmas brings new gift books. Select the choicest for
consecutive reading during the holy week, when the family
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 33/
is gathered together. The general good-will and cheer x)t
the gathering will be blended with the reading, until ail
together make an eternal impression, ^an epoch. Hans
Christian Andersen's story, "The Last Dream of the Old
Oak," would blend in with the waning fire of the Christmas
log, and create a mood never to be forgotten. — A. H.
A SLUMBER-TIME SONG.
Baby and I have wandered
Out 'ncath the dreamland tree;
Baby its fruit has gathered.
And some has fallen on me.
By-low, my baby;
The tall slumber tree
Is spreading its branches wide,
O'er you and o'er me,
And two little dreams
That live up so high
Are flying down gently.
To rest in each e}'e.
By-low! oh, softly
Your dear head droops low;
By-low! oh, softly
To Dreamland we'll go.
By-low! now softly
You fold dimpled hand;
Baby the gate has reached
Of Slumber Land.
— E. Addic Heath.
" Long before the majority of mothers are conscious of
the fact, the child's ideas of life, of right, of duty, of pleas-
ure, of usefulness, are receiving a bent which all the educa-
tion of schools and colleges cannot uproot." — Emerson.
CHRISTMAS NIGHT.
. Reverently.
y '•• J ^ J- j'l J ^ w J I J jj ^ w^^ I r r "1- p
Once with -in a low-ly sta-ble ,Wherethe sheep and ox -en lay, A
God sent us this lov-ing ba-by, From his home in heavn a-bove,
lov - ing moth-er laid her ba -by, In a -nan-ger fill'd with hay.
He came down to show all peo-ple, How to help and how to love.
Ma - ry was the Moth-er there, And the Christ that ba -by fair.
This is why the an- gels bright, Sang for joy that Christmas nigit.
r
^^
^^
^
^^
FIELD NOTES.
"What is Education?" was the question which Miss EHzabeth Harri-
son answered in her opening lecture to the Mothers' Class of the Kin-
dergarten College, which began its five months,- course of study Novem-
ber 8. She looked into the systems of the Orient, of Egypt, of the
Hebrews, of the Greeks and the Romans, -rnd found in each something
good, but in none the idea of the perfect uriioldment of the whole nature
of man. In China, India, and Egypt a few individuals were highly edu-
cated, the masses being entirely neglected. Moses was a perfect giant,
and he was trained by the Egyptian priesthood; but his influence was
for the good of all, so the Hebrews stand almost alone among ancient
nations in calling the masses to righteousness and peace, and to the
thought of one God. The Gre:5ks had an ethical system, as is portrayed
by Homer, and the Athenians would not allow a man to take out papers
of citizenship until he had reg'stered a vow that he would leave his
country better than he found it; and in Athens we first find the peda-
gogue. She recommended all mothers to study Plato's Republic. The
Spartans trained the women physically, that they might give birth to
strong sons. Rome was the first nation to leave the child entirely to the
mother until six or seven years old; but their mistake was in making the
whole of education utilitarian. Cicero was the first Roman who taught
that the soul came from God and could never be destroyed. Seneca
taught that man was a spirit born into time, but for eternity. The great
teacher was Jesus Christ, and from him and all the past Friedrich Froe-
bel gathered his ideas and organized them into a system which included
the whole nature of man; and he treats the little child as a spiritual be-
ing, from God and for God. Froebel stands as the greatest educator,
for he saw all life in its totality, and all children as possessing divine
possibilities. The kindergarten school is but one step in the education
of the child. The soul is the thing to begin with in its individual, racial,
and divine development. This lecture was followed by a practical talk
on the gifts, and a detailed explanation of the First Gift. Miss Harrison
has introduced the Socratic method of questioning into her mothers'
classes in order that the mothers may themselves discover the psycho-
logical laws upon which the play and work of the kindergarten are
based, that they may become independent students of their own chil-
dren's mental and spiritual growth, and may meet new emergencies
with new devices based upon principle. The illustrations given may be
good ones of the principle involved, but may not at all suit the new case
in hand. The primal motive of the mothers' class work is that each
student mother may become a center of kindergarten thought in her
340 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
home and in her neighborhood, able to deal successfully with each phase
of the child's unfoldment and the obstacles that arise from day to day.
To develop individuality and originality in the individual is the high
aim of this phase of the mothers' class work in the Kindergarten Col-
lege, where a three years' course has now become established. — A. A\ K.
A CIRCULAR from San Jose, Cal., announces a class for women, in a
new study, — namely, that of child culture. We (piote from the an-
nouncement:
" This is an age of study. Women's clubs and classes multiply on
every hand: classes in literature, art, history, science; clubs for scien-
tific study of music, physical culture, chemistry of cooking, political
economy, scientific charity. One has scarcely a friend or an acquaint-
ance who is not a member of an interesting class composed of bright,
studious women. It is the aim of this little leaflet to call the attention
of such women to a new study for this year, — the study of child culture.
'The study of child culture!' exclaim some of our friends; 'we have no
children to cultivate, and we have no vocation for tea.ching; this study
lies out of our domain.' To this it might be replied, that we are inter-
ested in the popular lectures of specialists, though we do not intend to
become specialists ourselves. We listen to lectures on art, history, and
literature, not that we may become artists, historians, or poets, but that
we may understand the works of those who are. We may have no wish
to spend our lives shut up with microscope and specimens in the study
of biology, yet we may be eager to hear talks from those who go deeply
into these matters. Our lives are enriched by each great thinker and
worker, in so far as we exert ourselves to enter into his life, to think his
thoughts after him. We were all children once; each has lived through
this experience, so that those who study children, and seek to under-
stand them, often find that they are learning to understand themselves.
A child, an immortal being, is certainly as legitimate an object of
respectful study as a starfish, or a microbe, or a plant. He is as im-
portant as a freshly exhumed hieroglyphic stone, or a bone of an extinct
species, and is not he, 'the living poem,' worthy of as careful and con-
centrated thought as the masterpieces of literature or the languages of
foreign countries? Not that we decry research, observation, and study
in all these fields. Not at all. We simply wish to express, first, that
the scientific study of children is of deep importance; second, that its
importance is not confined to teachers and mothers; it should claim a
portion of the time of every woman of culture; third, it is an interesting
study, and not dry and heavy, as some suppose." Mrs. Morehouse
Lawrence is conductor of these classes.
" Flowers and the Children," was the topic of a paper prepared by
Mrs. A. F. Hofer, of Salem, Ore., and read before the floricultural
society of that place. The following paragraph will illustrate the argu-
ment of the paper:
FIELD NOTES. 341
" But more important than all this is that the child learn early in
life the perfections of nature and the beauty of its works. Do the man-
made names and botanical appendages make the lily more pure or the
violet more sweet? Let us rather keep the children free from these
bugbears and allow them to imbibe unconsciously the higher lessons
taught by the blossoms so pure and simple. Show the child that a
flower never bloomed that was not perfect in form and harmonious in
color. They can be taught at one time the commercial and aesthetic
value of flowers. Let the children have seeds and plants of their own,
no matter how small the garden plat, that their thoughts may work with
nature and thus become as chaste and pure as her blossoms. Teach
them the wonderfulness of the Creator through contact with his richest
gifts. Let them learn that only by the aid of his light and power is it
possible for us to have these beautiful surroundings to inspire us to
nobler and higher impulses. We all remember with joy the happiness
of our childhood days, and of gathering the flowers of the field. We
knew to a day when the wild crocus would bloom, and the lapse of time
between the appearance of the anemone and that of the violet. We
needed no guide to direct us to the mossy beds and shady nooks to
witness the uncurling of the delicate fern. From the opening of the
first spring bud to the gathering of the harvest of nuts and mottled
autumn leaves, can you recall a day spent in the fields and forests that
was not one of purity and peace? The recent observation of Arbor
Day by the children of our public schools, only leads to the higher
suggestion of cultivating flowers about the school buildings. This can
be most successfully done, both indoors and out, with good effect, not
only from the acquirement of knowledge by the children, but by the
higher moral discipline involved. As the larger portion of the school
year is during the winter months, the greater attention in this work
should be applied to plants that can be successfully grown inside, as
they can be made a great source of pleasure the year round."
The members of the Froebel Society of St. Louis, at the meeting held
October 28, had the pleasure of welcoming and listening to Miss Amalie
Hofer, of Chicago, who addressed them on the subject of "Right Rela-
tionships." " Every man should find his premise," was the opening
pregnant sentence of the speaker; and the thought which seemed to be
the underlying meaning of these words and permeate every part of the
theme, pointed the necessity that each individual is under to find within
himself l\\?i\. power of heart and mind which shall make him a force for
good in the world, and then to exert it. This adjustment secures "right
relationships." To women, to whom the spiritual education of the race
seems specially intrusted, the message comes with particular emphasis.
"What is civilization?" asks Emerson. "The power of good women in
the world." If we could all feel the force and responsibility of that
answer! — Secy Froebel Society.
342 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
There are persons who are natural teachers. There are more who
absorb the professional spirit easily from only the slightest contact with
those who possess it. But these are unfortunately few in comparison
with the whole mass. The overwhelming number need a comprehen-
sive and intelligently laid out course of instruction, and constant inter-
course with trained teachers and with other students in a professional
atmosphere. Experience, home reading, institutes, circles, and lectures,
serve to keep teachers at the front of educational activity, but for the
purpose of making teachers they cannot take the place of a regular
course in a professional training school for teachers, which is such not
only in name, but as much in fact, as the medical and law and theolog-
ical schools are professional training schools for those established pro-
fessions.— Hon. A. S. Draper.
The Colorado Kindergarten Normal School, under the superintend-
ence of Miss L. E. Spencer, resumed its work in September. There are
twenty-four students, — ten seniors and fourteen juniors. These young
ladies have the privilege of practicing in the Wilfored, the Arthur, and
the South Denver kindergartens, which are now a part of the public
school system. Many of the graduates of last year are successful kin-
dergartners in Colorado and other states. Mothers' meetings are held
in different parts of the city. A club has been organized for primary
teachers and kindergartners wishing to pursue their studies. An associ-
ation has been lately formed in Cheyenne, for the support of a kinder-
garten, of which Miss Richard, a graduate of the class of '93, is director.
There is a good prospect for a pleasant and successful year's work.
The Chicago Kindergarten Club has issued its prospectus, which
includes an annual report, the matters of organization, list of members,
also a directory of the kindergartens of the city. The first regular meet-
ing of the club was called to order by the president, Miss Frances New-
ton, Saturday, November 4, with a good attendance. The series of lec-
tures brought before the club by Professor F. Starr, of, the University of
Chicago, promises great practical profit to the members. Special course
ticket or single tickets may be secured by others than regular members.
The social features of the club will be largely extended during the com-
ing year, and the enthusiasm of old and new members promises a profit-
able winter's work. The club meets at Lincoln Hall, 66 and 70 Adams
street.
A PRIVATE kindergarten, though small, exerts an influence as im-
portant as that of the largest free school. If young kindergartners will
learn the lesson of patience, and instead of changing their tield of work
so often, hold fast to one location, greater benefit would come to them as
well as to the community. We congratulate every private kindergart-
ner who can show a record of three or more years at the same post.
Miss Axtell of Pittsfield, Mass., announces her third year, with enlarged
FIELD NOTES. 343
capacity and assistants. Also the Misses Johnson and Alcott announce
the fourth year of their kindergarten at Port Chester, N. Y. Miss Alice
Butchart has opened her fourth year at Duluth, Minn.
The regular monthly meeting of the California Froebel Society was
held at 64 Silver St., Friday, November 3, 1893. Miss A. Pelham was
chosen to fill the chair, and the meeting was called to order. The mem-
bers of the society were then formally notified of Mrs. Dohrmann's be-
reavement, in the recent death of her husband, and a committee was
appointed to frame resolutions of condolence. A motion to adjourn, out
of respect to and sympathy with Mrs. Dohrmann, was unanimously car-
ried. The next regular meeting will occur on Friday, December i, 1893,
the subject under discussion to be — "Modeling and its \^alue; What
and How Shall we Model?"— J/. L. Bullock, Rec. Sec.
The Alumnae Association of the Chicago Kindergarten College
began its work of supporting a free kindergarten in September of 1889, in
the Bohemian district of the city, at Halsted and Twelfth streets. It
has continued to carry on this work ever since. The association has
increased its membership to about forty-five active members. One of
its aims is to encourage a spirit of friendliness among all the students
of the college, and several receptions are given from time to time dur-
ing the college year, to the members of the college. — Nellie A. Lloyd,
Secretary.
Miss Carrie S. Newman has recently opened the first kindergarten
in Vancouver City, British Columbia. She writes: "Much curiosity
seems to have been aroused, and I am anxious that the parents should
gain a true knowledge of the system." Miss Newman's ambition is a
worthy one. There is no excuse for mistaken impressions of the work
or its value going out from the kindergarten itself. Every new field
should be entered as holy ground, and every step of that entrance should
be counted as a lesson to the " curious people," of what the true kinder-
garten is and is not.
Wanted. — Vols. I and II of the Kindergarten Magazine, at $3
apiece. Anyone wishing to part with these first volumes can secure the
prompt payment for the same. Public libraries are demanding the
bound volumes, in order to possess the complete file of the publication.
Let us know at once if you have such, of which to make disposal.
Reports of clubs and societies, which are desired for publication in
this department, should be mailed to reach the editor by the 15th of each
month, in order that they may appear in the magazine of the follow-
ing month. These reports are valuable to the fellow workers, and
keep an interchanging interest in the work far and near.
Miss Eva O. Farnsworth, of Minneapolis, has worked out a set ot
architectural building blocks, which, if brought into the market, will
344 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
make a transition step from the kindergarten over into the grade school.
The creative power of the kindergartners is developed as well as that
of their charges by this transforming method.
Every kindergartner may become the central sun of a social plan-
etary system, through her intelligent enthusiasm and sincere convictions
substantiated in a good, wholesome kindergarten. It is not reserved for
the few to be successful, but each of the least may be in proportion to
her self-abandon to the work.
Mrs. Edwin Sawtell addressed the Women's Educational Union
of Brockton, Mass., on the " Moral Value of the Kindergarten." After
the lecture questions on every phase of the subject were answered.
This is often the best part of such an occasion, since it brings out both
sides of the question.
The article entitled " Shoemaker's Barefoot Children," which ap-
pears on page 276 of this number, gives the friends of Emilie Poulsson a
different view of her powers, both of writing and thinking. She is well
known through her nursery rhymes. She now gives the world a sermon.
The women of Wayne, Penn., are organizing for study and work to
the profit of their home making and keeping. They meet regularly to
read and discuss matters of child training. A handful of earnest women
can create an influence in a community which is unlimited in its force.
The Golden Gate Kindergarten Association has recorded 16,242
children during the past fourteen years. The past year has enrolled, all
told, 3,318. Mrs. Cooper is now preparing her fourteenth annual report,
and says, with her native fervor, " Our work goes bravely on!"
Portland, Me., has had the pleasure of hearing and seeing Mrs.
Kate Douglas Wiggin. The author's reading netted to the purse of the
free kindergarten $200, and to the audience who welcomed a fellow
Maine woman, great pleasure and profit.
Mrs. p. S. Knight, a graduate of the Grand Rapids Kindergarten
Association, has organized a study class among the parents of Salem,
Ore. This work is supplementary to the regularly organized training
class already existing in Salem.
The paper prepared by Miss Heerwart, of Germany, on " Froebel's
Religion," which was presented and discussed at the Kindergarten De-
partment Congress during the past summer, will appear in pamphlet
form during the winter.
The female seminary at Charleston, S. C, has a well-equipped kin-
dergarten department in charge of Miss Schleppengrell, who promises to
be one of the leaders in the Southern work. She is also organizing a
study club for parents.
FIELD NOTES. 345
The November meeting of the Philadelphia Society of Froebel
Kindergartners discussed "A Day in Kindergarten," with the apple as
the objective point of interest in examination, story, poem, hymn, games,
and modeling in clay.
Is THE faculty of memory of enough importance to have three-
fourths of all the time spent in school devoted to its development? —
William Hawley Smith.
Miss Amalie Hofer spent a week recently among the schools and
kindergartens of St. Louis. A fuller report of this visit will appear in
our next number.
Geography, as a science, was introduced into Europe by the Moors
about 1240.
The Chicago school board now fathers twelve public school kinder-
gartens.
London, Ont., has eight public school kindergartens.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
The simultaneous appearance of two such books as " In the Child's
World," and " Practical Suggestions for Kindergartners," emphasizes
the need which teachers have long felt for a volume of practical assist-
ance and guidance in their work with the children. They must know
their materials or text-books, in order to take charge of a roomful of
children. But how to apply this knowledge to the children has not al-
ways been a matter so easily acquired. " In the Child's World," by
Miss Emilia Poulsson, has been looked forward to many months. It
has arrived in time for the kindergartner's Christmas stocking. And a
welcome gift it will prove, in that it combines storybook, science, his-
tory, morning talks, list of books for reference and study, as well as sug-
gestions enough for many months of school days. The subject matter
of the book is classified according to the seasons and the school year,
supplying suitable materials for the individual kindergartner to embody
in her program work. A thread of purpose runs through the entire col-
lection, binding together the parts into a story of the seasons. The
original matter by Miss Poulsson herself is full of her native touch, in-
cluding adaptations and revisions of many familiar rhymes. In the case
of "Lisa and the Birds" she has translated a quaint Norwegian story.
The "Old Fashioned Rhyme " is a parody on "This is the House that
Jack Built," and runs:
This is the tree of the forest;
This is the ax, whose steady blows
Cut down the tree of the forest.
In this happy manner is traced the entire process by which strong tree
becomes strong house; at the same time is applied the fundamental rule
of the kindergarten, which urges that school work lead more and more
into processes, never merely an examination of unrelated objects. The
stories from Miss Poulsson's own pen, many of which have never been
published before, reveal a knowledge of child nature as well as a thor-
ough experience in how to make the most vital impressions upon him.
A joyous and sweet undercurrent characterizes the individual tale as
well as the \yhole volume. This in itself is the essence of the kinder-
garten doctrine. There is no greater or more wholesome moral to point
than these of joyousness and sweetness. The practical suggestions at
the head of each chapter give much general information to the kinder-
gartner, as well as hints as to methods of talking with, not merely at the
children. Many old familiar tales are retold, often retouched to advan-
tage, such as " The Golden Touch," " The Honest Woodman," etc. The
illustrations, calculated to let additional light into " The Child's World,"
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. 347
will be of great interest in reading the stories with the children; they
are simple and direct in their references to nature and man's activities.
Every mother or teacher who has enjoyed the privilege of making her
own scrapbook, gathering here and there the bits which have charmed
or instructed, will appreciate the labor and the discriminating judgment
which has been thrown into this volume of many scraps. The teacher
who has no time for making her own collection will appreciate this book,
which has been culled with special reference to her exigencies. The
child who loves his "great, wide, wonderful world," will love this book
also, which on a rainy day can still take him out into the woods, into
other lands, often carrying father and mother with him on his journey-
ings.
" Practical Suggestions for Kindergartners," as announced hereto-
fore, comes published by its author, Jeannette Gregory, of St. Louis. It
is a large volume, behind every page of which we find a sincerity and
conviction which cannot other than secure a permanent value to the
book. Miss Gregory is one of that group of vigilant St. Louis workers
which has made such lasting impression upon American school life. In
the effort to bring out a book which should reveal to teachers the psy-
chological law of their work, and at the same time put into their hands
the tools and methods for operating this law. Miss Gregory assumed a
great undertaking. The fidelity to her twofold purpose has presented
to the kindergartners a volume of infinite suggestion and worth. As the
author states, the plan of the work here recorded is that applied to chil-
dren of six years, such only being admitted to the kindergartens of St.
Louis. This must be borne in mind, since it admits of and necessitates
much more organized work than the little nursery kindergarten with
babies of three and four years. The introductory remarks of the author
clearly set forth the purpose and point of view of the subject matter.
The index covers the following general departments: Talks on the
songs of Froebel's "Mutter und Kose-Lieder "; Talks on animals, birds,
and insects; Talks on plants and flowers; Talks on general subjects;
Stories, including fifteen typical stories; An appendix of practical di-
rections, such as the arranging of charts, selection of materials, room
decorations, etc. One hundred and thirty-eight pages are devoted to a
detailed model program, including the proper divisions of time and the
proportionate balance of work, play, and chat. In spite of the elaborate
detail, the unity of the plan is fully sustained, and Froebel's education
of man is elucidated: namely, that the child should be led to know him-
self as a part of a great organic world, through his daily dependencies
and relationships. No special value is claimed for any one part of the
material or work, other than as these are turned to the one purpose of
revealing the child to himself. The individual kindergartner is ex-
pected and urged by the author to substitute her own application of this
principle and adjust the detail plan to fit her environment and neces-
348 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
sity. We congratulate Miss Gregory upon her laborious but sincere
work, and frankly believe that she agrees with us in saying that no one
book can ever take the place of systematic training or experience. The
price of the volume is $3, and it can be secured through the Kindergar-
ten Literature Company.
"Child-Stories from the Masters," by Maude Menefee. This book
will be ready for the holidays of 1893-94. It is one of the greatest
attempts of this age to give to the child the greatest themes of the mas-
ters, introducing the youngest readers to the masters through the door
of interpretation rather than fact or fiction. Some of her stories have
appeared from time to time in our m.agazines, and have won the highest
expressions of praise from those who are looking into the child's needs
for pure and classic literature. We can only say for the book that it is
bound to take its place among the permanent works of art for children.
Price $1.50, bound in white cloth and gold, and laid paper; most
durable and elegant.
A NEAT pamphlet in white and gold comes bearing this title: "Pro-
fessional Training; To What Extent is Symbolism Justifiable in the
Kindergarten? Two addresses before the educational congress of 1893,"
by Mrs. Eudora L. Hailmann, of La Porte, Ind. These valuable papers
will be of advantage in this form for future reference and study. The
sincerity of Mrs. Hailmann in all her work is well known, and hence her
statements will be read with great interest.
" The Friendship of the Faiths," an ode by Louis James Block, ap-
pears in pamphlet form, inscribed to the International Congress of Re-
ligions. Published by C. H. Kerr & Co., Chicago. Mr. Block is known
as a philosopher-poet, and this addition to his productions is cordially
welcomed by his many friends.
The following books are received: "The Psychology of Childhood,"
by Frederick Tracy, D. C, Heath & Co.; "Boston Collection of Kinder-
garten Stories," published by J. L. Hammett, Boston. (Price 60 cts.)
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
"Mother Goose in the Kindergarten," by Fannie S. Bolton, which
will be ready by December i, 1893, has already a large and eager
demand. The book will be put on heavy rope manilla paper with scar-
let and black letters, and made in a manner most durable. The illus-
trations are the work of the author, who gives them to show how any
mother or teacher can express in crayon whatever jingle the children
may love to repeat. The edition will be very small, and made espe-
cially for this Christmas time. Price in boards, 75 cents; m cloth, $1.
Send for it to the Kindergarten Literature Co., 1207 Woman's Temple,
Chicago.
There are only about one hundred copies of Vol. I of Child-Garden
to be had. They are now bound, and partially exhausted. We desire
to give our readers the tirst chance at purchasing them. Price S2.
The Christmas Catalogue of the Kindergarten Literature Co. is
just ready. It contains portraits of the most prominent kindergarten
writers, many of the faces never having appeared before.
The price of Miss Poulsson's "In the Child's World" was given in
an edition of our catalogue as §2.50. It was a mistake in our advices,
which have since changed to §2.
An energetic lady kindergartner in Wichita, Kan., has sent this fall
1 12 subscribers to Child-Garden. There is nothing unprofessional in
the work of introducing this beautiful magazine, and half the profit goes
into the workers' hands.
Send for a bundle of sample copies of Child-Garden, and put it into
the hands of as many children as possible, for a Christmas gift from
their parents.
■Wanted. — The following back numbers of Kindergarten Maga-
zine in exchange for any other number you want in Vols. II, III, IV, or
V, or for books: Vol. I, Nos. 3, \, and 9; Vol. II, Nos. i, 8, and 13; Vol.
Ill, No. 8. Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Chicago.
Send in your orders early for bound volumes of the Child-Garden
for 1892-3. There will be a limited number only, and the holiday trade
is already engaging them. They are handsomely bound in silk cloth,
and make a very attractive volume, Price $2. We will bind back
numbers in cloth for anyone sending their files, for $1.
350 THE KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE. ,
Many training schools are making engagements for next year's
special lectures through the Kindergarten Literature Co. We are in
correspondence with many excellent kindergarten specialists in color,
form, music, primary methods, literature, art, etc.
Child-Garden Samples. — Send in lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
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KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.— JANUARY, 1894.— No. 5.
EARLY EDUCATION THROUGH SYMBOLS.
I.
MARION FOSTER WASHBURNE.
BEFORE taking up the specific topic of this paper,
"Early Education through Symbols," it seems fit-
ting that we should examine somewhat into the
general use and meaning of symbolism. When
we have found what it is, and what its peculiar value to the
individual, we can the more easily apply it to the little
child; for it is a truism that that which we would teach, we
must first know ourselves; and I suspect that there are
some of us who have never realized the part symbolism has
played in our own lives, and who therefore fail to recognize
its importance in all development. Who has not discov-
ered that on attempting to teach a little child to draw or
sew, one had to examine into the way that oneself held the
pencil or the needle, and so for the first time made the
process conscious?
In this paper, therefore, I propose fii^st to discover how
much and what symbolism has done for us, and then to
judge of its value to the child.
Symbol, says that obliging lexicographer, Mr. Webster,
who has helped so many embarrassed essayists to begin
their papers, comes from two Greek words, — sti/i, with or
together, and ballo, to throw; and it means "the sign or
representation of any moral thing by the images or proper-
ties of any natural thing;" also, "an emblem or representa-
tion of something else;" or "a letter or character which is
significant."
352 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
You will please notice the breadth of this definition. It
is not perhaps all that might be desired in some respects,
for the expression "a moral thing" is, to say the least, unen-
lightening; but at any rate it gives us scope. The deriva-
tion of the word is more satisfactory; a symbol is the put-
ting together of the thing and its meaning. This is, I take
it, the exact significance and right use of a symbol. It
shows "the existence of an internal in an external."
It does not leave the things of this world, things of
sense merely, disconnected with things of the other, the
inner world; but it shows that in the truth of sense lives the
truth of spirit; that in and through the material lives the
immaterial, which was in the beginning with it, and without
which was nothing made of that which is made.
The use of symbolism is more widespread than is per-
haps usually recognized. Many have said that they knew
nothing about symbols, while at the very time they were
using them. For all language is a symbol; and not a nat-
ural, but an arbitrary symbol, like the symbols of algebra.
You remember Webster defined a symbol as a "letter or
character which is significant." The letter S, that crooked
quirligee, is an arbitrary symbol of a certain sound, which
sound might be represented by any other kind of mark, as
indeed it is by different peoples; for instance, the Greeks
sometimes write it, of course, like an o with a handle to it.
This symbol again, in combination with three others, just
as arbitrary and unreasoning, we have accepted to mean
the word "self," and this word again to stand for the won-
derful, complex, incomprehensible idea of the self,— ^an
idea written differently, yet not thought so differently, in
every little petty divisiorl of a language under the sun. - Al-
though the double combination of artificial and forced sym-
bols which takes place in the writing of a language might
justly be considered as clumsy a use of symbolism as any
that could be devised, yet think of what infinite value it is!
Without it we should have no further communication with
each other than that which takes place between the un-
taught deaf and dumb. Yet in written language, even of
EARLY EDUCATION THROUGH SYMBOLS. 353
the baldness of a mathematical proposition, or the aridity,
as of mountain peaks above the verdure line, of Hegelian
categories, there is a double use of symbolism, and symbol-
ism of the most forced and artificial kind. There is first
the symbol of the letter, and then of the combination of
letters, or word; and this, as we well know, bears no or-
ganic relation in its resultant meaning to the meaning of its
various parts. Thus the letters of the word "self" indicate,
indeed, its sound; but the transition between its sound and
its meaning is as violent, as apparently unreasonable, as
the relation between its appearance and its sound. We
have made speech so much the vehicle of our thought, and
used writing so constantly to indicate speech, that it often
requires some thinking to prove to ourselves how purely
arbitrary the whole performance is. Children see it. They
continually ask: "Why is this a shoe?" "Shoe, shoe, shoe,"
my little boy repeated the other day, over and over, "I
don't see why they said shoe. Why didn't they say cat or
pudding?"
Well may he ask, and we with him. There is a why,
but what is it? I take it, we are all content to assume that
there is a reason for everything. What is the reason of
this universal parallelism? Why should all peoples express
thought in sound which bears no immediate organic rela-
tionship to it, any more than touch, or taste, or smell, or
heat, or light? and then, when they reach a certain phase
of development, express this sound again to the sense of
sight? Here is a curious thing happening, — an idea, sound-
less, intangible, not evident to any of the senses, translating
itself into something that touches the ear, and that, again,
moving out, through the fingers, into something that touches
the eye. Why? Why doesn't it stay thought, and commu-
nicate itself as such, without the clumsy and insufficient
medium of sound? Why, moreover, if it uses sound, does
it use it so differently in different places? Why is the
thought of the Chinese utterly unintelligible to you and me
in its written form, though entirely germane to you and me
in its entity?
354 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
These are difficult problems, and not to be settled in a
limited paper. The most we can do, in this time of symbol-
izing together, is to discover that we are symbolizing, and
to be convinced that there is a reason why, and to look
later for that reason, at our leisure. In the mean time, I
am going to tell you what I think is the reason. You
probably will fail to agree with me; but that will be pro-
ductive of a more vigorous discussion afterwards, which is,
I believe, desirable.
I think we use symbols because we half recognize, uncon-
sciously, that things of all sorts, — pen-scratches, chopped-
up vibrations of air, all our senses, and all the outer world,
are here as containers of spirit, exactly as our kitchen uten-
sils hang shining on the wall ready to contain anything
with which we may choose to fill them. This world and all
that in it is, is here for use, and for the use, not of the dead,
but of the living. A pen-scratch by itself, without meaning
and without life behind it, could not exist; but if it could,
it would be dead. By itself, it would be silly and useless;
made by a living hand, moved in obedience to a living will,
inspired by a lofty thought, that pen-scratch may move the
world and alter the face thereof! Not, however, if the will
is an unreasoning will or the thought a thought which will
not bend itself to be contained within the prescribed form.
If a Shakespeare or a Dante, even a David or a St. Paul,
should take up his pen, think high thoughts, and will his
hand to move through some eccentric orbit, more equal to
the inspiring thought than the set characters of the alpha-
bet, he would not succeed in communicating his thought
at all, any more than the feeblest child who scribbles a
page full of crooked lines to tell papa he loves him. The
thing that makes a language of any value is the consent of
many people to bow their individual wills to the will of the
majority, to submit to even unreasonable caprices, like the
caprices of our English spelling, for the sake of being in a
position to communicate. I want to emphasize that the
consent of a large number of people is necessary to make a
symbol of value; and the larger number of people so con-
EARLY EDUCATION THROUGH SYMBOLS. 355
senting, the greater the value of the symbol; as for instance,
the English language is a higher means of communication
today than ancient Greek, not because the Greek language
is less flexible and rich than the English, — for some of the
highest thoughts of which the human mind is capable have
been voiced in Greek, — but because today fewer people
consent to use the ancient Athenian tongue. If Goethe had
written in Greek, he would probably have died unknown al-
together by this time. Since he is mellowed a little by age,
some few scholars might have found him out, and have
vainly entreated the world to read him, as they entreat it to
read Sappho in the original.
So a symbol, to be of value, must be accepted by large
numbers of people — the larger the better. Hence arbitrary
symbols — as letters, words, and algebraic signs — are of
less value than universal symbols, which reach home to all
people, and have reached home through all time.
We do not any of us need to be convinced of the value
of language, nor even of symbolic language. There are
some of us who consider higher thinking that form of
thinking — the philosophic — which dispenses with the use
of images; but most of us turn a cold, deaf ear to philoso-
phy, and a warm and willing one to poetry. Why does
poetry move us more than prose? Is it its form and
rhythm, its jingling repetition of words that end alike? or
is it that subtler thing, — its use of symbolism? Every
poem is full of symbols; every line teems with references
to the natural world as an explainer of the spiritual.
At various times in the history of the world, learned
men, having discovered the value of symbolism, through
their experience of what the world of nature can teach him
who will listen, have attempted to construct what may be
called a human system of symbolism; and hence we have
the extraordinary sculptures and paintings of the old Ori-
ental temples and caves, of the Egyptian pyramids, of our
own Indian and Aztec relics. This using of pictures of
objects, natural and unnatural, to indicate spiritual truths,
varies from the crudest imagery to the most elaborate. We
356
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
have the hundred-breasted goddess — nourishing mother —
of the far East, and the careful hieroglyphics of the valley
of the Nile; and strange to say, it is the crudest of these
systems which most easily interests and affects us. Or, to
be more accurate, that system which most nearly approxi-
mates nature, which is the least artificial, and has the least
of the man in it, means the most to us. Why?
[Concluded next month.)
OBSTACLES TO KINDERGARTEN PROGRESS IN
OUR LARGE CITIES.
ELIZA A. BLAKER.
(Mrs. Eliza A. Blaker, who has superintended the substantial growth
of the public school kindergartens of Indianapolis, speaks with authority
on the above practical subject. This paper was prepared for the Inter-
national Kindergarten Union Congress.)
THE obstacles to kindergarten progress in large
cities are manifold; but after a careful sifting,
they may be classed under two heads, — namely,
the hindrances arising from a lack of knowledge
of the purpose of the work, and a wrong impression of the
necessary expense. Upon the solution of these is depend-
ent the early and permanent establishment of the practical
phase of the kindergarten idea.
The kindergarten as a part of the public school system
is the only avenue to reach all classes of children. In order
to pave the way for this, and to lessen the number of bar-
riers that naturally arise where a new department of educa-
tional work is not generally understood, time must be given
for the information of the public mind. There are two
avenues through which to accomplish this purpose, — two
avenues which represent the extremes of society, — the free
or charity, and the private kindergarten. These in turn
have mountains of obstacles to surmount; but many of the
difficulties may be overcome if the first step be wisely
taken. The right organization of a system of free kinder-
gartens is dependent upon a few earnest, persevering, and
well-informed persons, who, working among their friends,
not only create an opinion in favor of the cause espoused,
but in this way constantly widen the circle of workers, until
enough are deeply interested to form a society.
Then follows the careful selection of an executive board
and the appointment of a superintendent or organizer.
358 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The latter must be a thoroughly educated and cultured
woman, possessing executive ability, discretion, tact, and
an especial training for the work. She must have the qual-
ities of mind and heart which ever keep her in touch with
child life, and an enthusiasm to which is added the power
to make the theory clear to the public through speech and
press and practical work. Her personal discouragements
must not become a hindrance to the labor of the executive
board. The superintendent, being especially prepared for
her work, with a high ideal of its purpose and an ever-living
faith in its value, should be the source of encouragem.ent
to every member of the society.
The following are some of the mistaken views which
tend to hamper kindergarten progress: that the expense
is too heavy for the number of children reached; that the
kindergarten unfits the child for the duties of school; that
the children are too young to leave home; that the system
is good enough for the poor, since it furnishes a place of
shelter, etc.; that the kindergarten is a school, and it is
wrong to give children regular instruction previous to the
age of six; that the eyes of children are not in a condition
to be employed in kindergarten occupations before the
seventh year; that the auxiliaries of the free kindergar-
ten, such as food and clothing, tend to pauperize; that
the expenses could be decreased by keeping the salaries
low, because it does not require much ability to play with
little children. These attacks arise from ignorance of the
subject, and they point to the line of work that must be
done to bring the opposers into a right understanding of
and sympathy for the Froebel idea.
By way of answering some of these objections, it may
be stated that it has been our observation that it costs less
than two dollars a year to keep a child in a free kinder-
garten. This amount includes such items as luncheon and
aid in clothing. What if it cost three times this sum?
Would it not be economy and wisdom to aid the child in
the habit-forming period of his life, to strengthen the
foundation?
OBSTACLES TO KINDERGARTEN PROGRESS. 359
One of the most formidable obstacles to overcome is
the low salary, which prevents many a well-adapted per-
son from becoming a kindergartner..
Clothing given to a destitute child of the free kinder-
garten need not engender poverty, if it be given on the
condition of regularity in attendance except in cases of
sickness.
Again, the kindergarten is not a school. Its very name
denies such a statement. There is abundant testimony,
however, to combat each objection.
The meetings and the classes for the pleasure and in-
struction of the mothers, both of the private and free kin-
dergarten, serve as a strong ally in aiding the overthrow
of prejudices against the system and in furthering the di-
rect work of the kindergarten.
The kindergarten system thus reaches into the home
through the training afforded the younger children and
the mother; but the work does not benefit the family as
fully as it should, nor does it embrace every opportunity
for overcoming opposition, until it establishes the domes-
tic training school, with its miniature and practical depart-
ments of every phase of housework. The latter opens its
doors to the older brothers and sisters once a week, and
at nine-thirty a. m. This gives the children time to help
at home before the hour of opening. The pupils are held
responsible for the daily practice of the weekly lessons in
bed making, etc. Under a Free Kindergarten Society and
with a normal training school, the additional expense of
the domestic training departments need not be heavy.
Kindergartners should not allow a chance to escape them
for the elevation of the family and for the testing and
explanation of the value of the work.
Obstacles are to be overcome, not alone in the solici-
tation of money to support the system, but in the gather-
ing of the children for the kindergarten.
Although the Free Kindergarten Society helps to pave
the way for the permanent establishment of the public
school kinderearten, its work will never cease; for is not
360 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the neglected, the poor child, of less than four years, to
be trained and housed and fed? The friendly visiting,
too, must go on. Some provision must be made to keep,
as much as possible, school machinery out of the public
school kindergarten, and the mother-heart, the home feel-
ing, in.
In laying stress upon the value of the charity phase in
preparation for the public kindergarten, care must be
taken not to lose sight of the private kindergarten and
its great responsibility and worth; for out of the self-sac-
rificing pioneer labor of the latter has developed the free
kindergarten. The work of the private kindergarten can-
not stop. The three phases of the Froebel system are
necessary to reach all classes and to form a circle of kin-
dergarten training.
DELSARTE INTERPRETED BY ONE OF HIS DIS-
CIPLES.
MARI RUEF HOFER.
DURING the last half century it has been the good
fortune of America to bear upon the pages oi'jts
guest book two noble names, — Froebel and Del-
sarte, — the inception of whose ideas into ;_ old
methods are revolutionizing the educational world.
With charming frankness and ingenue, we have hospita-
bly received and encouraged these pioneers of new thought.
We have as fearlessly sifted and tested their ideas, meta-
phorically "trying them on," pruning the worthless and_ re-
taining the good.
This scoring process has been applied to the Delsar-
tean system of physical development in our country, which
has been so largely investigated during the last ten years.
The detail and application of the Delsartean system is
sufificiently well known. Its methods, however inadequately
rendered at times, have been gratefully received among
362 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
teachers of all classes, suggesting new elements of beauty
in their work and lives, strongly opposed to old angulari-
ties and awkwardnesses.
It has had its exponents, good and bad; its interpreters
and misinterpreters; but through all the movement there
has been such a constant progress toward a truth to be
revealed, that it has attracted and held the attention of
our ablest thinkers and workers.
Through the new happiness of the rhythm of our bodies,
we began to realize the hunger of our hearts for art, — the
desire for the beautiful to be brought into our lives.
In this spirit we welcomed the graceful interpreters
of the Delsarte system, as inspired beings who were to
restore to us the lost art of personal beauty and repose.
We were charmed by the graceful waving arms and the
lithe and sinuous movements. We have passed safely
through all the phases of this movement, from the sen-
timental attitudinizing and. statuesque posing in Greek
drapery to the other extreme, the semi -scientific basis
of combined muscle and emotion. Between these two
has stood the interpreter, on the intellectual basis, finely
poised in her differentiations, holding the balance of com-
mon sense with the well-defined logic of the principles of
Delsarte.
The Delsarte fever, or craze, is over. Its artificial con-
stituents have fallen away. Only to its most earnest and
sincere seekers has its truth become revealed, and, as they
have understood, has it become embodied in their lives.
Of these it maybe truly said: "They have found and are
living in the poise of Being, and radiating out from this
vitality the powers God has given them."
The art of life — the art of living graciously, beautifully,
serenely, yet vitally — is becoming understood among us.
We are beginning to look more to the true interpretation
of ourselves as a necessary accompaniment to daily duties.
We are beginning to question deeper and closer into the
meaning of Delsarte the 7na7i, as we move in the rhythm
of his theories.
DELSARTE INTERPRETED. 363
Is not art in the inner, nature sense, such as interpreted
by Millet, Corot, or Ruskin, the secret of his thought?
Would he not repudiate — as we must feel to do when
we learn better things — the over-scientific, analytically in-
clined work which'iargely represents the Delsarte training
of today?
Is not art — real art, whose mellowing influence is be-
ginning to touch us on all sides — as different from this
conception as the downy pink flesh of a child from a hid-
eous skeleton?
Such a consideration of Delsarte, from the words of one
of the masters of its artistic interpretation, we would like
to present to our readers, many of whom, standing in the
intuitive presence of the child, and in daily touch with the
wellsprings of his action, will feel their peculiar power and
truth.
Mr. Edmund Russell says: "I believe that Delsarte is
the connecting link between Froebel and the 'new educa-
tion.' He would train the 'Froebel instinct' into the con-
scious acting and being man. Delsarte is the tuning of the
instrument by which to bring the life within into relation to
the world without, thereby leading to a higher unification of
man.
"Everything we do is an act. We open our eyes, we
breathe, we walk, we bathe, we eat, we clasp the hand of
a friend; our whole life is a series of personal activities.
With animals, savages, primary people, these personal ac-
tivities are the whole life, and their constant execution
gives them naturalness and ease and charm. Their per-
sonal observations are not contemplative, and call for no
unnatural nerve concentration, contraction of brow, or con-
centric turning in of their nature to fix itself upon thought.
Their life is a natural radiation of being, embodying in cir-
cles their experiences, — living, loving, learning, and grow-
ing in harmony and completeness.
"The baby opens his eyes; he lies for a long time drink-
ing in the light and color around him. Each day the eyes
take in a wider circle. It is some time before the head next
364 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
moves in the succession, and very far before the neck lifts
the head; then the trunk is added, and the shoulder, elbow,
hand, reach out for the object.
"The child sees things as a whole. Its first enjoyment
is the thrill its breathing sends all over its body; and its
enjoyment of light, air, and color as one with it, and all
its little breathings and ecstasies, are as unified as the forces
that hold the planets together. The breathings and turn-
ings and spiral movements are not to give us higher grace,
but higher life and a continued and further-reaching power
of expression, adequate to the emotive impulse within.
"The body must learn to do; then only thinking be-
comes incarnate, and then it is that personality stands for
influence and does work in the world. It is not the action,
but the beautiful doing of it, that makes it complete. Wash
dishes as an accompaniment to your soul thought. Our
education now consists of separating, dividing, naming ob-
jects, and intellectualizing our being until we no longer live
in the frank wholeness of the Italian fisher boy, but in a
concentration of thought so intense that our whole being
seems to lie in the contraction of a little cell or fiber be-
tween the eyebrows.
"Turning without, instead of within, we must get back
by art this lost kingdom of God-given expression."
In reference to a physiological basis for our work toward
art results, — the bane and curse of all modern schools of
art, — Mr. Russell's words are very strong and to the pur-
pose.
"The study of bones must only come when we are filled
with the wonders of body expression, with its harmonious
and divine mission as mediator between the God within and
the universe without.
"If I were to interest you in a piece of decorative mate-
rial, artistically speaking (unfolding a piece of texture),
I should first call your attention to its beautiful harmony
of color, to the subdued gold of the background in rela-
tion to the rich brown of the figures. Then I should speak
of the beautiful pomegranate pattern, — a conventionalized
DELSARTE INTERPRETED. 365
pomegranate, not a real one. A decorative design is not a
botanical lesson. Even in giving you a botany lesson I
should send you out into the fields to first study the gesture
of the flower, the harmony of its color and form; for that
is, after all, what makes the flower. The child does not
see or care for the detail, or the structural processes of its
growth. It is only conscious of delight in its beauty.
"To return to our design: — the great good of the les-
son to you .would be to excite in you a higher appreciation
of beauty, a stronger desire to have beauty in your own
life; above all, to show the harmony which is the beautiful,
and help you select and arrange the things that come into
your own life. Beauty does not depend upon external
value.
"When you purchase a chair for your room, be sure that
it bears some relationship to the general furnishings, and
especially let it speak something more of its owner than
the fact of a goodly bank account. Relate the garments
you wear to yourself. Let them speak something of your
character, your personality. Buy a gem because it suits
you, not because it will tell how rich you are.
"We must tr^in man to the synthetic use of his power
throughout. His work is not to create the universe, but
to create himself. He has been given the power to build
himself. Scientists look upon him as the crowning feature.
There is no other physical climax. All evidence reaches its
highest in man, and Delsarte teaches us that man's era has
just begun, and the next step is to lift him to the arche-
typal,— the man made in the image and likeness of God."
In conclusion, Mr. Russell outlined the three great
groups of the Delsartean theory of development, which,
classified and organized in this way, will help students to
better understand the paths of their own development.
"1st. Relaxing exercises to shake off old contractions
and prepare the body for the study of motion. The be-
ginning of nervousness is contraction; the beginning of
congestion is disease, which in turn is the beginning of
all ugliness.
366 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
"2d. Then come floating curves and spirals, to unify
the body and promote personal growth through reflex
action of physical harmony. Most people stop here, and
try to weave these beautiful movements into life. The
real life expression has yet to follow, from the impulse
within, moving through a free body.
"3d. The study of the laws of expression, which sub-
ordinate these motions to meaning. This is attained
through the law of succession, the flowing of movement
from one rhythm to another."
Mr. Russell illustrated the third point in the greeting or
hand shake of one of our Oriental World's Fair visitors as
an undulation of his whole being. His emotion radiated
itself through speech, voice, through the glance of the eye.
The action traveled from his emotive center to the shoul-
der, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, ankle, in one succession of cour-
teous gesture. Compared with this, a curt, impassive Ameri-
can greeting with the accompanying poking out of a wooden
hand attached to a wooden arm, is an insult. He believes
we have much to learn from the natural but physically
happy condition of the savage.
In relation to the games and life of the kindergarten,
the kindergartner must understand motion and the laws
of motion, as the basis of her work. Never make unnec-
essary motion. Never make motion for motion's sake.
Keep to your great Froebelian, Delsartean principle of
radiation from a creative center, and you will not only
fulfill God's great natural law of development in man, and
fill with joy and delight the life of the unfolding child, but
bring about growth and results, as spontaneous and fresh as
the eternal source from which they spring.
THE PLACE AND VALUE OF SONG IN THE KIN-
liERGARTEN.
CONSTANCE MACKENZIE.
(Read before the kindergarten section of the International Congress
of Education.)
THE song seems to claim a place for itself in every
nook and corner of the kindergarten. It is appro-
priate almost everywhere. It welcomes the chil-
dren into the morning ring, and accompanies, with
delightful freshness, the subject of the morning talk. It
leads them in the march and through the games, and fol-
lows them to the tables. It introduces the gift, and closes
it. It brightens and lightens the occupation, making the
informal busy time a glad union of voice and finger exer-
cises. And its last friendly strain dies away only as the
kindergarten is left empty of children at the session ending.
Other reasons aside, its place is assured because the chil-
dren love to sing; and this love of song in childhood leads
me directly to the second heading of my paper, — What is
the Value of the Song in the Kindergarten?
To start with reasons physical, for the value of the kin-
dergarten song, we may draw attention to the chest devel-
opment induced by good singing. To achieve its best re-
sults, the physical training of children should possess an
interest to them entirely outside of the development of the
body. Gymnastics, as such, have no place in the kinder-
garten. In the song this condition of good physical train-
ing is met to the extent of the song's possibility.
The child learns to sit and stand with back straight and
shoulders well back, not formally, but with the understand-
ing that it is the song's requirement and preamble. The
action at once tends to broaden and elevate the chest. So
also does the habit of deep breathing, which, as the children
learn to sing well, they unconsciously adopt. There, too, is
Vol. 6-24
368 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the development of the voice, a result not alone of depth of
chest, but also of the interest of the children in interpreting
the sentiments of the song-story. And the children's inter-
est in the story, and the delight in the music, form the foun-
dation of all that is valuable in their singing. There are
reasons manifold for the value of the song in the kindergar-
ten, from the point of view of the child's unfolding intelli-
gence.
The song offers one of the most attractive means of em-
phasizing all that is received through the talk, story, game,
gift, occupation. It is an ever-varying, ever-pleasing repeti-
tion of the child's knowledge, and an always popular means
of following up new experiences. The rhyming, measured
language impresses itself upon the childish mind as prose
can seldom do. It is to him the language form most read-
ily retained and most delighted in. It is furthermore, when
chosen as it should be chosen, — with a due regard for its lit-
erary and artistic value, for the most fitting and the most ex-
quisite in wording and music, — a means of training in fine
taste, surpassed in opportunity by nothing else in the kin-
dergarten.
The child who has learned to appreciate beauty of word
language and of tone language is, to the extent of his appre-
ciation, both a poet and a musician; and in being both or
either he is intellectually greater — and morally greater —
than he was before the unfolding in him of the aesthetic
sense. Bad music and paltry rhyme are dying out of our
kindergarten song books. It is hardly possible nowadays
to hear, as I have heard, of Mary's lamb, that he "waited
patientlee about, lee about, lee about," in order to accommo-
date words poor enough in themselves to worse music.
Moreover, the good song offers to the child a standard
of expression in language and music especially valuable
while he stands on the threshold of expressive power, and
is then permanently impressed by the earliest examples
brought to his notice.
The chief and estimable value of the song lies not, how-
ever, in the physical nor in the intellectual, but in the moral
VALUE OF SONG IN THE KINDERGARTEN. 369
training it affords. The song is the uplifting of the spirit.
Its effects are as various as the ever-changing childish
moods. Well and judiciously used, it is a means in the
hands of the kindergartner of ci^ating moods. Harmful
influences may be confronted and overcome, good ones
strengthened, by the right song in the right place, sung as
it should be sung. Weariness and irritation are changed
into a sense of peace by the introduction, without preface
or preparation, of a soothing song without action. Dull-
ness and heaviness may be dissipated by an unexpected
dash into a stirring bit of music. And many are the quietly
pointed morals — not too evident, but sinking all the deeper
because undisturbed by direct allusion — of which the song
becomes the happy vehicle.
Music is, as we know, essentially an appeal to feeling;
and when we wed fitting words to fitting melody, so that
between the motive of the one and the motive of the other
there shall be no discrepancy, we shall have laid a direct
avenue of approach to the child's sympathies, to his better
and more refined instincts. The road to reverence lies
through the feelings, and to it the song leads the way. It
winds by way of sympathy and respect for the lower forms
of life, lifting itself up to a tenderness for the human in life,
and in and through the human it sees and reaches the di-
vine.
Take a song like the following, to observe how a child's
reverential feeling is first stirred:
The alder by the river shakes out her powdery curls;
The willow buds in silver for the little boys and girls; •
The little birds fly over, and oh, how sweet they sing,
To tell the happy children that once again 'tis spring!
When a child shall have learned to feel the sentiment in
such a bit of musical poetry, and to recognize a loving rela-
tionship between himself and the alder, the willow buds,
and the little birds; when he shall have begun to stretch
out in friendly greeting to things and people not himself, —
he will have taken the first step in religion. And as he
keeps on singing the song again and again, and adds others
370 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of the same uplifting tendency, with music that also ele-
vates, the sentiment of reverence deepens and widens, until
by and by it embraces all that he can know of what is true
and good and beautiful.
The answer to the question as to how far the dramatic
element should enter into the song, can be broadly stated
in three propositions:
First, the subdued song, with the thought turned inward,
should be sung without further action than may be ex-
pressed by undisturbed attitude, as in the winter prayer:
Loving Friend, oh, hear our prayer!
Take into thy tender care
All the leaves and flowers that sleep
In their white beds covered deep;
Shelter from the wintry storm
All thy snowbirds; keep them warm.
Here the only unforced action is the lifting of the head
in appeal. If further gesture be introduced, — such as an
imitation of the movement of the storm, or of the covering
over of the flowers, — the simplicity and unity of the song
are marred, the thought is distributed among the objects
for which the appeal is made, instead of being centered
upon the One appealed to, and the intended effect of the
little hymn is destroyed.
Proposition second: The song that tends to project
thought outward — the song of joyous, leaping action —
needs action in its expression, as in the well-known bluebird
song:
I know the song that the bluebird is singing
Up in the apple tree where he is swinging.
Brave little fellow! The skies may look dreary;
Nothing cares he while his heart is so cheery.
Hark! how the music leaps out of his throat!
Hark! was there ever so merry a note?
Listen awhile and you'll hear what he's saying
Up in the apple tree, swinging and swaying.
In such a song as that, the child is living among things
external. "Up in the apple tree" lifts his hand with it.
The listening attitude of the hand to the ear, or the finger
lifted and the head turned, are almost instinctive, and the
VALUE OF SONG IN THE KINDERGARTEN. 37 1
cradling movement in time to the music goes by itself as
the birds tip the branch. The charm of the words, the
swing of the rhythm, the catch of the music, set him "swing-
ing and swaying," until he is a bit of nature, at one with the
rapture of the outburst of the song. If we here separate
gesture so instinctive, from the singing, we check the child
and spoil the song. It is in songs of such character that
children most naturally select their own form of action, be-
cause they feel it so keenly in the blood. Let them choose.
Encourage choice, and adopt the best they propose.
My third proposition is, that songs requiring movement
so violent as to interfere with natural breathing action
should be acted out only by those of the children who are
not singing. This proposition should be laid down as a prin-
ciple. There are many songs which in their suggestiveness
call for quite violent movement, — ^movement delightful to
the children and of great physical value. Such gestures may
be employed by half of the class as a sort of a Greek Cho-
rus, illustrating objectively the story told in the song. In
no other way is violent gesture for a moment to be consid-
ered, unless one would counteract all physical benefit de-
rived from the act of singing.
Every song, no matter how classified, calls for interpre-
tation through the movement of the muscles of the face.
The intention of the song should transfuse the countenance
of the child; its very spirit must shine through its eyes.
But this expression is pernicious in the extreme if it be
"put on." The song-story and the music must be felt, or it
ought not to be used at all; for unfelt expression is utterly
false and artificial.
Thanks to the sunshine,
Thanks to the rain,
Little White Lily is happy again,
sing the children. It will not do to say to one dismal-faced
little songster, "James, look happy." One cannot look
happy to order — not honestly happy. And with feeling of
any kind that is not honest we want nothing to do. But if
one says for the class generally, for James to hear, "I can
372 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
see that Mary is a happy little lily; see how her face shines,"
then James forgets himself, ceases to be a child, and enters
wholly into the fresh gladness of the flower. And at once
the feeling will show in his face.
While care should be taken that no song that does not
suggest action should have action thrust upon it, one should
be equally observant not to discard gesture which the very
nature of the song almost compels. I have heard singing
rendered lame and lagging, because the kindergartner
missed the impulse in it striving to push outward into ac-
tion. A suggestion from her would have animated the sing-
ers and have wakened the song into life.
Finally, I would urge that, be the song what it may, no
gesture be permitted that does not mean something, that
does not add to the song's value as a means of expression,
and that is not natural. I have seen songs so crowded with
movement that not one gesture could be clearly and defi-
nitely finished. I have seen marred by gesture songs which
would have been tenfold more effective had they been sung
quietly, without action, as both words and music demanded.
And I have seen songs made ridiculous by misfitting every-
day words to gestures that the child would never use in like
connection in everyday life; as in some of the songs of
greeting and of farewell:
Good-by, happy work;
Good-by, happy play,
with both hands outward thrown as each good-by was said,
in farcical exaggeration of expression.
I have hardly begun to plead the cause of the song in
the kindergarten; but it needs no special pleader. Other
things have their place, but the song belongs to all times
and places; and at every time and in every place it has its
special hundred-sided value. It is the very breath of the
kindergarten. And it behooves us all to see to it that our
children breathe in only the fresh, pure air of the best we
have in song.
ST. LOUIS, HER KINDERGARTENS AND
SCHOOLS.
AMALIE HOFER.
IT is twenty years since the first kinderp^arten stake was
driven into the public school system of our country.
It was the semi-southern city of St. Louis (whose
people are far famed for their unstinted cordiality and
open-handed hospitality) which first opened a door, how-
ever slightly, to the newcomer education. As is ever the
case, a certain keenly convinced individual, who has experi-
enced and proven this conviction into practicability, turned
the knob of the door.
As is known on two continents. Miss Susan E. Blow
secured permission from the school board of St. Louis
twenty years ago, to utilize a public school room for an
experimental kindergarten. She threw the full force of her
womanly energy into the experiment, and by means of un-
daunted perseverance and intelligent demonstration, this
first trial kindergarten attracted the earnest attention of
the school men of St. Louis, and was destined to become
the nucleus of an extended and eminently vital school sys-
tem.
In less than a year sufificient proof of kindergarten effi-
cacy was gathered, and the superintendent of schools, then
Wm. T. Harris, recommended to the board of education
that the kindergarten be incorporated into the school sys-
tem of that city. Five kindergartens were opened to the
urchins of St. Louis, whose numerous response has repeated
this necessity until today almost every public school in
their fair city has its inner temple for the little ones. This
progress has not been without attending difificulties and
labor pains, and the change of interpretation which made
the law to provide schools only for children over six years
is still one of its obstacles. This, too, will be met as the
374 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
understanding of child nature grows apace, and as men and
women of power reach so great a distance from their own
childhood as to see its possibilities in perspective.
The growing necessity of kindergartners and assistants
in the care of the children was early met by the opening of
a normal training class by Miss Blow herself. It was in
these early days that an impress was made which still
stamps itself upon all Western kindergarten effort. It was
in the pioneer struggle in this direction that the stanch
workers were called forth who today are carrying forward
the principles then revealed. One who lived during that
time of inspirational zeal, and experienced the awakening
which ever flows from a formative period, has said with
emphasis: "Those were indeed pentecostal days!"
A wholesome, homelike atmosphere prevailed in the
various kindergartens which we visited. At the Marquette
school we found a baby visitor whose birthday was being
commemorated by the sixty or more children, whose good-
will and admiration radiated through song and greeting to
meet this future candidate for a place among them. On
the wall of this same kindergarten we found a collection of
so-called "home work." This consisted of pieces of hand
work such as sewing, drawing, crude carpentry, etc., which
the children had devised and executed at home. The kin-
dergartner explained that every effort was made to encour-
age spontaneous industry at home, in order that the chil-
dren might not only more fully appreciate mother's and
father's work, but that self-effort and cooperation in the
home might be generated.
Much of this work was clearly a reproduction of what
had previously been done in the kindergarten; but in every
case the materials used were the crude findings of the chil-
dren. In several cases these materials were adapted and
utilized in a most ingenious manner.
An instinctive desire "to be busy" pervades the child,
when he sees mother working about the home. It should
be the aim of education to direct this innate desire into
self-elected work. It is a great step to direct it by pre-
ST. LOUIS, HER KINDERGARTENS AND SCHOOLS. 375
scribing tasks; another and nobler step, to inspire the child
to find his own work.
It was interesting to note that in the very building
where this lesson of cooperative usefulness was being incul-
cated, there were neither chairs nor tables, and scarcely
floor space sufificient for the children who demanded admit-
tance. Nevertheless good will and fellowship reigned, and
dry-goods boxes were crowned with busy hands and at-
tractive materials.
Again, we were ushered into a long room well filled
with children whose efforts to overcome native unkempt-
ness and original earthiness were only too visible. Here
we found an unbounded good will, which sang us songs
both lustily and tenderly, and which welcomed as comrade
a much- soiled street pigeon to a home among them. Such
experiences brought to little children in the name of edu-
cation bring tears to the eyes of the stanchest adherent to
those old-fashioned days of the rule of the ferule.
The Stoddard school is an unique structure, with gener-
ous court and surroundings. A portion of the building has
served in the past as a religious chapel, but is now dedicated
to the holy work of elementary education. The kindergar-
ten, which the principal of the school candidly confesses to
be the plum of the altogether excellent pudding, has an at-
tractive room in the center of the building. A flood of
light entered the ornamental windows from three sides of
the room. The worktables were here arranged in the form
of two horseshoes, the kindergartner standing in the open-
ing, faced by the semi-oval of attentive children.
It is evident that school people as well as other connois-
seurs are seeking out the appropriateness and fitness of
things. Several of the special kindergarten buildings in St.
Louis are veritable caskets for their precious jewels. One
is shaped with many cheerful windows in a half-circle, se-
curing a most effective light for the busy children and kin-
dergartners. Another building is octagonal, giving attract-
ive wall spaces which were decorated with the children's
handiwork. Again, we found stained glass windows, — one
376 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
called the Froebel window, and another dedicated to the
memories of Miss Susan Blow.
An unique charm prevails in every kindergarten, and no
class of people is so susceptible to its indescribable power as
are kindergartners themselves. Every song and story calls
up reminiscences of other children and their gathering im-
pressions. Every passing word, every glance from child to
kindergartner, every expression of enthusiasm coming from
the young cadets which warms the surrounding atmosphere
into generous good will, all the signs and countersigns of
childhood's own inimitable unfolding, — all these qualities
contribute to that composite charm before which the initi-
ated lay down their worldly all.
As we passed from one kindergarten to another, we
found cordial greetings and welcomes everywhere. Chil-
dren, like poets and artists, carry their hearts on their
sleeves, and respond to every touch, be it but the gentlest
approach of a stranger.
A hearty cooperation was noticeable between directors,
children, grade teachers, kindergartners, principals, and
oflficers of the board. This internal family spirit is to be
commended, and is sufficient to counterbalance lesser faults
and failings.
The confidence placed by Superintendent E. H, Long in
his large corps of workers is revealed in the, unconstrained
daily atmosphere of the schools. Mr. Long, after being as-
sociated in this work for many years with Dr. Harris, suc-
ceeded him as superintendent of the schools, and has not
failed to follow out the pattern set by his predecessor. He is
cordially committed to the kindergarten cause, and his an-
nual report never fails to present the principles of Froebel
to his constituency. The chapter on the "Universality of
Kindergarten Principles" has been reprinted in pamphlet
form from his official report for 1891-92. Together with a
previous pamphlet on the " Relation of the Kindergarten to
the Primary School," this document makes a most convinc-
ing argument in furthering the work.
The colored public schools of St. Louis bear testimony
ST. LOUIS, HER KINDERGARTENS AND SCHOOLS. T^-JJ
that organized educational effort with the colored people of
the South may be made substantially fruitful. These results
have been possible in St. Louis as nowhere else, because of
geographical and historical precedents. We visited thor-
oughly two of these schools, entirely attended by colored
children, from the kindergarten through the upper grades,
with principals, teachers, and kindergartners all of the same
race. The cordial dignity of the latter was marked, while
the orderliness of the children was irreproachable. The
only married woman retained in the service of the St. Louis
School Committee is a colored kindergartner, whose innate
power and grace could not easily be replaced.
Everyone has heard of the St. Louis Manual Training
School, and of Professor Woodward, who has stood so many
years as the enthusiastic pioneer in this direction. A visit
to the school under his own escort proved highly inter-
esting and profitable. The informal class work, whereby
a group of twenty or more boy students gathered about
their respective instructors, whether in a lesson of scien-
tific investigation or literature, or in the shop applying the
principles of the smithy, was a pleasing prophecy of the
school of the future. The subject studied will then be of
such all -engrossing personal interest to students, that
visible rules and regulations, bars and devices, will be rel-
egated to the attic like other useless and outgrown mat-
ters.
The new high school building on Grand avenue is an at-
tractive and generously proportioned structure. The inter-
nal life of the building is even more inspiring, since it is
composed of the youth, vigor, and faith of fifteen hundred
young men and women. Mr. Louis Soldan, as principal of
this center of animation, has an enviable privilege, but one
which his native culture and scholarship, combined with
sincerity and warmth of character, will by no means fail to
fulfill. During a recent visit to this school by a party of
distinguished guests, the entire family was filed into the
spacious auditorium to listen to the impromptu eloquence
of several of the foreign visitors. Their hearty rounds of
378 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
applause were unmistakable signs of spiritual as well as
physical culture.
The exhibit of the St. Louis schools at the Columbian
Exposition called forth much comment, and was granted
several medals by the committee on awards. The exhibit
was complete in that it covered the work from the kinder-
garten to the university, including normal training of teach-
ers. Several original departures from customary lines were
noted in this exhibit. The kindergarten department was
well represented, but the critics who made a comparative
study of kindergarten exhibits were forced to admit that
this work from the hands of six-year-olds could not be
judged from the average standpoint.
Chroniclers who point to St. Louis public school kinder-
gartens as arguments in favor of the introduction of similar
sub-primary departments elsewhere, do not always bear in
mind that these children are six years old, and therefore
less formative than the so-called kindergarten children of
three, four, or five years. In arguing in behalf of public
school kindergartens, it is always wise to condition the ex-
istence of the latter to the /w/^r management of the same.
In St. Louis this requisite is now fulfilled in the freedom
and scope allowed the supervisor and directors of the kin-
dergartens.
Miss Mary C. McCulloch, who has been supervisor of
the kindergartens, subject to the school committee, for ten
years, is an energetic, earnest woman, whose unstinted and
intelligent enthusiasm for this work with the children has
done much to sustain the public interest and support of the
same. There are now ninety kindergartens under her super-
vision, as well as a normal training class which enrolls for
the current year seventy-four cadets. The normal training
covers a two-years' course of work, the satisfactory comple-
tion of the first year's work entitling the student to a certifi-
cate for paid assistantship in the public kindergarten. The
completion of the second year's work secures a diploma for
director.
The instructors of the kindergarten normal class at pres-
ST. LOUIS, HER KINDERGARTENS AND SCHOOLS. 3/9
ent are as follows: Miss McCulIoch, instructor of gifts,
"Mutter und Kose-Lieder," songs and games; Miss Mabel
A. Wilson, program work, Froebel occupations; Mr. Wm.
M. Bryant, psychology; Mrs. Haydee Campbell, in charge
of colored assistants and students, in gifts and occupa-
tions.
The St. Louis Froebel Society was organized in 1887,
and enrolls for the current year sixty-five active members
and nearly two hundred associate members. This society
has regular sessions on Saturday morning, for the purposes
of further culture and closer intercourse. On the morning
of October 30, it was my great privilege to meet and com-
mune with this society; nor shall their professional cour-
tesy and hearty welcome soon be forgotten. The kin-
dergartners of St. Louis are a recognized factor in all
educational and intellectual influences of that city. They
have free access to the city library, with a special room set
apart for the books of their department. The kindergarten
library numbers 210 selected volumes, besides two regular
subscriptions to the Kindergarten Magazine. This is an
important item in the progress of the society, and one
which it would be wise for every other kindergarten union
to duplicate. It is not always practicable for individuals
to hold a complete set of books, nor are those of specific
interest to kindergartners always obtainable at public libra-
ries. A small circulating library can soon be instituted by
the cooperative effort of a central society.
Kindergartners of St. Louis, you may well become pro-
verbial for your perseverance and zeal. You have labored
vigorously and uninterruptedly for twenty years, and have
a worthy harvest garnered. Your eternal vigilance has not
been in vain. You have lifted the educational status of your
entire community, thereby giving a new standard for the
schools of the world; you have evolved a new race of
young womanhood, and have secured, by your uncounted
effort, to thousands of children the opportunity for expan-
sion and expression. You have been the faithful " vigi-
lantes" of our now speedily evolving cause. Such keen and
380
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
whole-hearted effort may never subside into ways of com-
plaisance or self-satisfaction.
May I offer a word of advice to travelers? Enter a city
by way of its homes, its nurseries and kindergartens, its
schools, rather than its commercial gates, and you will
never fail to find delight, expansion, and inspiration.
Nov. 5, 1893.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The new year, 1894, scores the Kindergarten Literature
Company a one-year-old. It is as lusty and active as the
creatures of the same age in other well-known species.
The self-activity of this child of the kindergarten move-
ment is eminently working from within outward, and will
follow such natural channels only as open in the way of all
true forces. It does not choose its ways or its work, but it
aims to fulfill every next opportunity which the growing
necessity of the cause demands. The child has infinite
resources of activity. Educational progress offers infinite
scope tor the exercise of the same.
The world does not expect men and women to put
themselves into their work. Individuality in business meth-
ods is an old-fashioned notion. The "policy of the firm "
has long since come to take its place, and the business man-
ager has become the mouthpiece of the company in all
difficult decisions. The corporation of many firms has
become so great a body, that many heads are necessary to
decide every point, and thus the mighty decisions of the
majority are kept properly impersonal. In these days it is
the exception to find a large firm which reflects the person-
ality of its members.' Much more exceptional is it to find
an extensive business enterprise bearing the stamp of the
head of the firm. One of these exceptional cases is that of
the Ginn Co., publishers. The undeviating effort of this
firm has been to provide the highest standard of literature
to the primary schools, and the classics to the youth of our
land.
This standard and policy of the publishing company has
been established by its senior member, Mr. Edwin Ginn,
who has edited many of the classics with his own pen, and
in many practical ways worked out the problem. His per-
sonal conviction that good literature is food which makes
382 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
boys and girls grow in the right direction, has become the
basis of his work as publisher. His business has thus be-
come the outgrowth of an earnest effort to benefit human-
ity. Every department of this business takes men and
women into account, quite as much as the commercial ends
which are ever sought to be gained through such means as
flesh and feeling.
Mr. Edwin Ginn is well known as a philanthropist of the
rational school. He writes concerning a late enterprise:
" I am very much interested now, as I have been all the way
along, in organizing great combinations for the relief of the
poor; not in giving them a dollar, but in taking from their
necks the feet of those people who, in their earnest strug-
gle for existence, are pressing them to the wall. I want to
see what can be organized in various cities to help them to
a comfortable roof over their heads at the same rate of
interest that we who are more fortunate pay in mone)% and
that they shall have as good bread to eat as we do, at a
relatively low price, and that their fuel shall not cost them
so much as it now does because they cannot buy more at a
time. These are the three great lines that I am thinking
about and trying to work in."
Men and women who not only dream of being bene-
factors, but who put their dreams into sound, sane, and sub-
stantial practice, are the great educators of every age.
While the great work of relieving the adult goes on, the
equally great work of setting the children's faces toward
the light is also proceeding. Mr. Edwin Ginn is cordiall}-
committed to the work and possibilities of the kindergar-
ten, and has stood as one of the first of the school men to
say the word and put out his hand in its behalf.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's "MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. V.
Tlie Song of the Wind. — As in the study of music, so in
the study of any serious subject, the practice hour is of the
greatest importance. The singer may not compass difficul-
ties merely by listening to his master. He must make
every effort to surmount them by singing them. Any point
of knowledge gained is proven in the reproduction or ex-
pression of the same. In your study of this book of natural
philosophy, it is well to practice the expressing of .the
thoughts thereby suggested. A truth is doubly yours when
shared with another. It is most certainly assimilated when
you give it out in. your own words, in your own way.
There are two modes by which this expression may be
made, — the spoken-word and the written word. The latter
has come to be a more ready means of expression than the
former. It is students' custom to write notes and essays on
all topics of study. This is helpful to yourself; add the
spoken word, and help some one else. Seek to tell the
good thought that has come to you, to your next-door
neighbor.
Take the picture on page 2i of your "Mother-Play
Book," and read its story in a consecutive and relevant
manner, so that anyone listening to you may get its mean-
ing. Tell it so that these may see the whole picture, even
though the book is not open before them. When you have
caught the general truth embodied in this simple incident,
and see its application to everyday life, — to anyone's prac-
tical experience, — go and tell it to some mother, whose pe-
culiar right it is to know of these things. Do not keep the
seed thoughts you find, carefully concealed in your corner
cupboard; bring them out into the light of everyday living
and doing.
Vol. 6-25.
384 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
It is truth withheld and concealed and personalized
which men have come to call mysticism and subtle philos-
ophy. The kindergartner, of all students, knows the value
and nobility of free expression.
In our study of last month we found that the child's
kingdom is one of incessant expressing, doing, being. This
Froebel calls natural activity, {Selbst-thdtigkeit Kraft-duse-
riing), spontaneous, involuntary expression. The child is
the center of this kingdom, from which radiate a thousand
forms of activity.
What do we find in our lesson of today, which substan-
tiates the former statement? You who have studied the
picture, sung the song, and retold the story, — say, what
added meaning have you found?
•Yes, you find jnovoncnt everywhere. The children, their
playthings, the fowl of the barnyard, the trees on the ter-
race, the weather vane on the far steeple, — all tell the same
story of animation. On every side there is a flutter and
chatter and mysterious swaying. We feel the touch of the
breeze upon our foreheads. We rush out into the soughing
wind; we toss our arms; our locks free themselves from
conventional order; and we are lifted into that freedom-
mood which children know so well and so often.
Now we have responded to nature's touch, and like the
children, a hundred questions rush to our thought. What
is this something which surrounds us, which includes us
and the swaying trees and birds and steeple vane in one
mysterious embrace? Whence comes this strange fellow-
ship with rustling bushes, with moving windmill and sweep-
ing clouds? What is the power which makes all things
move? What is the unseen, hidden cause behind all this
movement and activity?
Instinctive questioning is a proof of the child's and
man's search for truth. As you read Froebel 's own expla-
nation (page 165 " Mother-Play and Nursery Songs") of this
simple but inspiring incident in every child's life, you again
learn of his method. This method is to begin in the near,
and reach out into the far. Your own child at this mo-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. Sb-J
ment may have a crude windmill in his hand. It is your
opportunity to help him experience the truth that so surely
as he sees the movement which delights him, so surely is
there a cause for this movement. Again, you see a group
of boys, struggling and tinkering all day in their efforts to
fly a disabled kite. What fond hope holds together their
patience and perseverance? The lad who holds the reel
of twine tells you with shining eyes. He has experienced
the power and force of that invisible thing ordinarily called
the wind.
In innumerable similar incidents you see men and
women and children, even animals, testing the cause by
ever and again repeating the effect. Froebel would have
this great instinct recognized and satisfied, that the divine
demand on the part of little children may never become a
piteous wail to ''Please let me see the wheels go round."
Through natural experiences the children of the world
learn to look behind every effect for the inevitable cause.
Nature becomes the great effect of the one great Cause. It
is a lesson the ages have sought to learn, through repeated
generations of seasons and humanity.
Is there a different causation behind the various objects
in our story of the wind? Is each thing moved by a special
or a common power? Can you tell from the details of the
picture which way the wind blows? Of what import is it,
that animate, inanimate, natural, conventional, great and
small, high and low things,— things far and near,— are all
moved by the same force?
What truth do you formulate from this series of sugges-
tions? How can you apply the same tomorrow morning in
your kindergarten? Could you take the same lesson into
your primary Sunday class and benefit the children? What
songs, stories, games, or industries do you know, through
which you might help the child to express this instinctive
search for truth? Do you appreciate the charm ahd mys-
tery of this familiar song (music as well as words)?
I saw you toss the kites on high,
And blow the birds about the sky;
386 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies' skirts across the grass.
O wind, a-blowing all night long!
O wind, that blows so loud a song!
I saw the different things you did,
But always felt yourself you hid;
I felt you push, I felt you call;
I could not see yourself at all.
O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a big, strong child like me?
O wind, a-blowing all night long!
O wind, that blows so loud a song!
There is another phase to this lesson of the weather
vane. As you re-read the motto you find a hint of why our
children imitate the things in movement about them: for
the same reason that the boy waves the flag or plays at
steam engine, — that he may experience, test, and estimate
the force by which things go. The baby on your lap sees
the weather vane turning hither and thither. He puts up his
chubby hand to do the same, that he may produce the same
result, you now know. Every effort to imitate the action
about him is an effort to answer his own unspoken ques-
tions, an effort to understand the why and wherefore of
life. Name as many incidents as you can recall, from the
experiences of children about, who instinctively seek to
know by doing. What proof have we that adults follow the
same law? — Ainalie Hofer.
THE STAR FOLK.
Shining through the dusk and dimness,
Glittering through the film of night,
Fell a star beam, till it rested
At my feet its shaft of light.
When lo! a thousand tiny star folk
On this wondrous shimmering strand
Glided down to earth from heaven,
And chased night's shadows from the land.
— Lesley Gletidoiver Peabody.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 38/
SOME INTERESTING NATURE TRANSFORMATIONS.
A veritable Christmas box of dainty creatures from the
woods arrived among our kindergartners recently, through
the kindness of Miss Susan Blow. As the birds and lowlier
creatures and artistic vases were one by one exhumed from
their cotton wrappings, expressions of undisguised delight
escaped all who saw them. In an accompanying letter
Miss Blow writes:
Avon, N. v., December 2, i8gj.
I have been feeling for a long time that our kindergartens could
never approximate to Froebel's ideal until we should carry out his sug-
gestions with regard to excursions into the country. An interesting ex-
periment in this direction has been made this fall in connection with
the Normal School Kindergarten in Boston, now under the charge of
Miss Mary N. Waterman of St. Louis. Remembering Froebel's insight
that productive activity stimulates observation, it seemed to me impor-
tant that the children should be led to make objects out of nuts, burs,
twigs, etc. This idea was germinating in my mind when Miss Bloecker
returned to me from her summer vacation. She became at once fired
with the thought, and has, I think, developed some very interesting
results. She is very quick to observe analogies of form and very ingen-
ious in using them. I think she will develop a new and profitable kin-
dergarten occupation. The following list of the materials she has used
may be helpful to others who wish to experiment in the same direction:
1. The maple tray is made by pasting a thoroughly pressed and
dried leaf upon soft cardboard. A narrow margin of the cardboard is
left around the leaf. This margin is slashed at regular intervals and
turned up. The cardboard may either be gilded or left white.
2. The acorn tea set requires no description. The sugar bowl, tea-
pot, cream pitcher, and teacups are combinations of the acorns and
their dainty saucers. The handles and spout are made of broom straw.
3. The turtle is a raisin, with cloves inserted for head, feet, and tail.
4. The teasel animal is rather generic than specific. We class him
among the hedgehogs. The stems of the teasel furnish his legs; his
head is a small thistle, which is riveted to his body by black pins
which at the same time make his eyes.
5. The body of the pig is a butternut; his ears are locust thorns; the
legs budding twigs; the tail a grape tendril. The ears may be either
riveted to the head with pins or fastened with fish glue. Small holes
for inserting the legs and tail may be made in the body with a heated
hat pin.
6. The meadow lark is a milkweed pod with a maple seed for its
head.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 389
7. Thus far no natural object has shown so many possibilities as
golden-rod galls. Only those who have carefully observed these curi-
ous growths can realize their varied adaptations. The pitcher sent you
is a golden-rod gall just as it grew, with the addition of grape-tendril
handle and decorations. The vase is an unchanged gall, mounted upon
another gall cut through the middle. The lamp and goblet need no
description.
8. The body and neck of the ostrich were produced entirely by the
golden-rod. Miss Bloecker simply added a maple-seed head, a grass
tail, evergreen twigs for legs, and the little three-pronged stems of the
grape for feet. The stork or crane was made in the same way, with the
exception of his legs, which are long thorns. The flying creature, which
I decline to class specifically, is a combination of the golden-rod gall,
with maple-seed head, wings, and tail. (The product of this rare com-
bination is a dainty winged creature which, hung by a thread, sug-
gests the Japanese conventional ornaments.)
Miss Bloecker herself suggests that these bird forms may
well become a successful rival of the ungainly "paper-fold-
ing chicken" which has delighted children for many gener-
ations. She says, further: "It really seems as if there was
no end to the developments which can be made from the
golden-rod galls. I have made no special effort in looking
for these curious growths, but found them growing in pro-
fusion in every clump of golden-rod."
The profit of such nature developments is inestimable.
It not only interests children in nature by showing them
what can be made from natural objects, but it reveals to
them how fundamental and universal are the laivs of form.
The body of the bird outlines the same curves and propor-
tions as does the pod of the seed or fruit of the tree.
There is a healthy flavor to this ingenious work, which
recalls those blessed days of early childhood when with
unstinted fervor we labored to transform every moss-grown
rock into an easy-chair, and builded our house about it; or
again, when we saw in every shady inclosure a spaciotis
drawing-room, or, tracing winding paths in and out among
the hazel-bushes, we saw mysterious approaches to dream
cities.
Kindergartners need have no fears of being non-peda-
gogical, when they are tempted to pass on from geometric
390 . KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and mathematical conventionalities into nature's own realm
of "law revealed." In the name of our own favorite "law
of recognition," let us search out the proofs of law existent
in the humblest excrescence of the wayside golden-rod. —
A.H.
OPEN QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY THE EDITOR.
Question. The parents of this community have deter-
mined to have a kindergarten, but they wish it held in the
afternoon. Would you advise such a compromise?
A?iszuer. The reason kindergartens have always been
held in the forenoon is no doubt due to the fact that little
children from three to six years old are accustomed to after-
noon naps, and also because the morning is the golden time
for learning and doing. In large public school districts it is
sometimes granted because of necessity, to have afternoon
sessions, but sufificient proof has been rendered to convince
us that the morning hours from nine to twelve are better for
the children than from 1.30 to 4 p. m. If their parents are
anxious to have the children "out of the way" in the after-
noon, they do not yet understand the purpose of the kinder-
garten. Tell them again what is its object, and speak with
fervor and conviction. The primary consideration is the
greatest good to the children.
Q. Can you suggest any good newspaper articles to pub-
lish in our local press, for the purpose of giving the people
here more of an idea of what kindergarten means? It is
not well understood by many, and I think in this way they
might become more interested.
A. The best kind of an article for your home people
would be a brightly written account of a morning in your
own kindergarten, with such important points of the work
woven in as you desire to bring home to them. If possible,
interest your editor and his wife. Send us the address and
we will mail them copies of our journals, and so increase
their interest. Other material for this purpose is to be
culled from journals and periodicals. Keep yourself posted
as to the growth of the work, and you will be able to ex-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 39I
press your accumulated knowledge in good form when re-
quired. When you write or speak upon this subject, even
though conscious of enlightening the public, do not take
it for granted that the public is in opposition to the work.
The public may be ignorant, and will be grateful for the
knowledge you can give.
Q. What do you consider the best book of songs and
games?
A. There are now ten or more good song books for kin-
dergarten and primary use. Many of these are collections
of the better songs which children have always loved. If
possible have them all, and select those songs which fit your
need best. No one of these books does the work of all.
One gem of a song, which you can use for many seasons, is
worth the price of the book.
Q. As there are factions for and against our kindergar-
ten work in the public schools here, I wish to make up my
report for the year's work, with as much convincing argu-
ment and as few quotations from Froebel as possible. Can
you suggest any aids in the matter?
A. You are quite right to avoid all cant and irrelevant
quotations. This work is no longer an experiment, and
there is sufficient formulated matter for use in such a report.
Send to Mr. E. H. Long, superintendent of city schools, St.
Louis, for his pamphlet, "Relation of the Kindergarten to
the Public School." Also secure the Pratt Institute cata-
logues, and the last annual reports of the superintendents of
the city schools of Utica, N. Y., and of Superior, Wis. We
reprinted the kindergarten section of the latter in our No-
vember Kindergarten Magazine. Do not fear to make
strong statements and give your own personal convictions,
for even a formal report may be made vital and ringing.
Q. Some members of our board of education still feel
that the public kindergarten is a luxury, and that for econ-
omy's sake there should be two sessions a day. Do you
think a kindergartner could successfully hold two sessions
a day, and do good work, with either the same or different
sets of children?
392 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
A. It is always a serious matter when the kindergarten
has been put into the public schools before the hearty co-
operation of the school committee is secured. The first few
years of organizing and detailing this work are expensive
ones, and the kindergarten will continue a luxury in the
public schools, unless a responsible party thoroughly can-
vasses the materials and supplies. These should be pro-
vided in bulk quantities and on the most practical business
basis. Well managed, supplies can be held within moderate
expense. Hold fast to this point: if the kindergarten is
put into the public schools, it must not be taken out from
under the control of professional kindergartners. It is not
a sub-primary grade. It is nothing unless its natural, home
freedom is preserved. In regard to the matter of two ses-
sions per day: if your school age admits children under five,
these children ought by no means to have more than one
half day in school. If your kindergarten children are over
five, they still should have no more than four hours. In
regard to two sessions per day of different sets of children,
I have this to say: it is done in Milwaukee and St. Louis,
evidently to good advantage, the teachers being paid in
proportion to extra work; but the teachers who take the
double day's work must be exceptionally stanch and spir-
ited, else they fall into ruts before the first term is over.
These situations are all relative to immediate environment.
However, it is a safe rule in opening a new field of work to
keep the bars up and compel recognition for the kindergar-
ten, not as adapted and modified to the existing needs, but
in its true state.
Q. What cities in this country have kindergartens as a
part of their public school systems?
A. St. Louis, Boston, Philadelphia, Des Moines, Roches-
ter, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Chicago (in part), Muskegon
(Mich.), Grand Rapids, Portland (Me.), Hartford, Superior
(Wis.), and others. Many cities have free and mission
schools; but these are otherwise supported than by public
money.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 393
CHARACTER AS APPLIED TO MUSICAL SOUNDS IN THE
TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM.
III.
In this article the subject of the last will be continued, —
that of mental effects through tones.
We had presented for our consideration in the previous
article the tones of the tonic or doh chord (D), each of
which we found may be quickly known by the peculiar
character it possesses; that of doli being firm; of soh, bright;
and of me, calm.
The tones next in order are te and ray, which with soh
form the dominant or soh chord (S). The character of te
(the leading tone) is sharp or piercing, and the term ap-
plied to it is keen; ray (the supertonic) is the prayerful
tone, and the term applied to it is grave. This tone, as will
be shown later, is the variable member of the scale, and at
times it has a rousing effect, the latter depending upon the
way in which it is approached.
It will be observed that words of one syllable are used
to signify the characters of the tones; these words are em-
ployed in forming a mental-effect modulator, to be used as
the sol-fa modulator is in singing.
There still remain two more tones to be studied, — fah
and lah, which with doh^ form the subdominant or fah
chord (F). These two tones possess characters which dif-
fer widely from those of the other five, that of fall (or sub-
dominant), the desolate, awe-inspiring member of the scale,
being signified in the term "stern"; that of lah (the sub-
mediant), the plaintive or weeping member of this musical
family, being signified in the term "sad."
The accompanying diagrams will show the order in
which these three principal chords of the scale are intro-
duced to the pupil, until the seven primary tones, or the
scale, of which these fundamental chords are composed, are
taught and appreciated.
It may be well to mention here that the octaves of these
tones, with one exception, are also taught, so that the
394 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
chords shall be maintained in their fundamental position,
and that all the tones of the principal octave between doh
and doh^ may be brought in. The exception referred to is
the octave of me, which is not given, because the range thus
presented would be too wide in the early stages of the
work.
[Note: Small letters are used for the names of the tones,
and capitals for the names of the chords; e. g., d, D.]
[Note: Tones belonging to higher or lower octaves are
designated by figures placed respectively above or below,
at the right of the tone name; e. g., doh^ , soh^, te^, doh~ . In
the case of the higher octave the number is read first, as
one-doh; and in that of the lower octave the tone name is
read first, as soh-o}ie.~\
dohi dohi dohi dohi
te te
lah
soh soil soh soh soh
fah
ray ray
doh doh doh doh
This subject, from the point here reached, will be con-
tinued in the next article. A digression will now be made
to consider the next most important element in music, —
time, — the physical part of music. Time or rhythm, al-
though second in importance, is very necessary because it
gives form to music, and is that which appeals very
strongly to most people. The importance of time in music
is very plainly and quickly, shown to the pupil in a few sim-
ple illustrations.
From the moment music begins until its close there is a
constant beating or pulsation occurring. The pidse is the
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 395
unit of time, and the name given to it for practice is taa.
With the aid of a few simple illustrations the pupil discov-
ers the most important element of time is regularity; and
further illustrations prove the second element to be accent,
or the particular emphasis given to certain pulses, which,
relieving the monotony resulting from regularity alone,
gives an added pleasure to our enjoyment of music. These
distinctions of the pulses as strong and weak produce meas-
ure or form. The simplest kind of measure is that in which
the strong and weak pulses alternate, — e. g., strong, weak;
strong, weak, — the following signs being used to designate
the pulses, I : | : ] forming two-pulse measure. Another
arrangement of these two kinds of pulses, in which the
strong pulse is less frequently heard, is the following:
stro7ig, weak, weak; strong, weak, weak; making three-pulse
measure. Mental effect is not restricted to tune; we find
it also in time. The effect produced by two-pulse measure
is that of strength, and is brought out in martial music, for
instance. The effect produced by three-pulse measure is
one of grace, and is exemplified in the waltz movement, or
a flowing style of music. In other words, two-pulse meas-
ure is the straight line in music, and by it we are reminded
of the mdivch,— left, right, Qtc; three-pulse measure is the
curve in music, and reminds us of the waltz, the lullaby, etc.
We have referred to the important truth that words and
music are closely united, that music is subordinate to the
words. In this statement the relation of words and time is
also included; in fact, as we advance in our study of rhythm
we discover that particular divisions of the pulse or unit of
time are necessary because of the arrangement of the syl-
lables in words. The placing of the strong and weak ac-
cents in words creates different forms of measure, — primary
form, in which the strong pulse leads, and secondary form,
in which the weak pulse has the first place; e. g..
Modifications of two-pulse and three-pulse measure are
made by substituting a pulse of medium strength for every
alternate strong pulse, which process makes four-pulse and
396 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
six-p.ulse measure, respectively: | : j : ;, | : : j : : ||. The
mental effect produced by these modifications of the sim-
ple kinds of measure is more delicate than that which they
possess, and four-pulse and six-pulse measure should be
used where such an effect is desired.
The third element of time — lengtli of tone — comes from
the necessity of prolonging certain syllables in words,
which will require tones longer than a pulse. In practice
the vowel of the time name for the pulse taa is prolonged,
taa-aa, and if the tone name is used the same is observed,
— e. g., doh-oh, — and the sign used is a horizontal line: d — .
The fourth and last element of time — speed, or the rate
at which the pulses move — simply proves that the measure
remains the same, no matter if the pulses move slowly or
rapidly.
The subject of rhythm will also be continued in a later
article. — Emma A. Lord, Brookly^i.
THE TYPICAL PROGRAM APPLIED TO THE DAILY VICISSITUDE.
III.
(continued from last month.)
Mrs. Bealert, who has charge of the oldest division of
children in the kindergarten, writes as follows: "After our
morning talk about the cave dwellers, who lived a long, long
time ago in the Stone Age, when people had no nice furni-
ture nor clothes, nor kindergartens for their little children,
but lived in great holes in the earth and spoke a different
language from ours, the children went to the sand table.
By using rocks for the sides and top of the cave, soon
great cave homes were finished, with paths leading down to
a stream of water. One little fellow digging a hole said
that he was making a spring. In a little while they were
carrying water to the caves, in the clay vessels they had
modeled a few days before. Then to make it yet more real,
trees (sticks and fringed paper) were put all about in the
sand, the hickory-nut tree being among them, where the
children from the caves could gather the nuts.
"The kindergartner asked what else they supposed was
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 397
there. Soon some one thought of birds. They went to the
table and folded birds that flew into the trees and drank
from the stream. Afterwards one of the little ones said, 'I
told Mamma about the people who lived in the caves.'
"The game of the cave dwellers (on the circle) deepened
the impression made at the sand table. Upon asking the
children if they would like to play about what they had
been thinking of before they came to the circle, one little
fellow, who had taken an active part while working in the
sand, said: 'Yes, about the caves.' Soon he and others
were busy getting stones. Selecting two of the teachers as
large rocks for the mouth of the cave, their clasped hands
formed the roof. Rows of children behind them running
back into a corner of the room finished the cavern, and a
dark covering over the top obscured the light entirely.
"The man and woman living there had four or five little
cave children with them. Two or three children lying down
not far from the cave represented a stream flowing from the
spring, which was made of several children stooping in a
half circle. The family, taking the vessels they had made
of clay to the stream, bring Water to the cave, using chil-
dren for these water jars, and dipping them into the
spring.
"Other children are trees standing close together; many
of them, swinging the First-gift balls, are nut trees. After
the wind blows the nuts down the children run out of the
cave and gather them to take to the cave, their home.
"Our gift lesson was a rock quarry. The cave dwellers
knew nothing of getting the rocks out of the earth, or they
might have built themselves stone houses. They used only
such stones as they found, and shaped for their uses by
sharpening or grinding them against one another. With
our building gifts how much we can make that the strange
people in those early times knew nothing about. Ours is
more the stone age than theirs was, because we can use
stone so many more ways than they could. But most of all
ours is the Electric Age. (Children are ever eager to talk
about electric lights.)"
398 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
It was suggested that we emphasize pottery and brick-
making through our use of clay in the kindergarten, and
glass through our use of the sand table, clay and sand
forming component parts of the rock family. Slate, slate
pencils, glass, plaster, and chalk are brought by the chil-
dren, and their relationship to the rock family talked of.
A brick house in process of building on an adjoining street
is noticed, and we mention how these kin of the rock fam-
ily are used. Brick walls are made with the material of
the Sixth Gift, and the clay brick made by children, and
the pottery shaped by them, are placed in brick and pottery
kilns in the sand table, to be baked by slow heat. Clinton
and his little brother Shelby try their hand at brickmaking
after going home. Each brings a nicely shaped brick to
kindergarten, Clinton's about four by two and one-half
inches, and Shelby's three by two inches. They are thor-
oughly baked by fire; the clay, after being made into the
bricks, was carefully dried, and the two little bricklets were
dropped into Mamma's grate in the midst of the glowing
coals.
The brick kilns in the kindergarten were constructed ac-
cording to the directions of one of the teachers whose
father had a brickyard. The form of the brick of the
Fourth Gift was noticed, and in building brick walls and
laying brick pavements the different ways in which the
bricks were placed — long, narrow faces and broad faces —
were brought out. In modeling pottery forms from the
sphere and cylinder, their likeness to the pottery of the
Stone Age was noticed in contrast to the beautiful and per-
fect forms of our fine china; but nevertheless the children
are pleased with their own crude attempts, and we as kin-
dergartners would not want their characteristic work spoiled
by direct imitation of mechanically perfect forms.
The children having learned that china and glass belong
to the rock family, enjoyed their table play with the First
Gift in this wise: working in groups of two or three, they
had china stores where cups, vases, tumblers, and other
ware were for sale, each one naming his goods as he thought
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 399
best and handling the balls as carefully as if they were the
v^eritable articles themselves. On coming to the circle at
the hour for games, one of the little storekeepers was asked
if she would not play a game she had learned about at the
table. 'Yes,' she said, and soon, with some help, was
building a china store; she and her assistant were very
careful to choose good stone for the foundation and good
brick for the walls, using a proper supply of mortar between
the bricks. (Children compose the material for the store.)
They soon get a full stock of goods (other children), and
are ready for customers. A child in white was a lovely
marble vase, soon purchased and taken home, where flowers
were put in it, using the mouth for the opening. Then
came a pink vase, a little girl in a pink dress. Then came
cups and saucers and a pair of lamp shades, pitchers, etc.,
the little proprietor being careful to look at the tag before
stating the price to the customer, in one instance saying the
article had been reduced from one dollar to fifty cents.
After several weeks' experience in handling and looking
at the rocks and learning the names of each, a game was
proposed testing the children's knowledge of them. The
children were asked to stand around the circle with closed
eyes; then when the kindergartner touched one, the child
was to go to the center and select from a pile of rocks the
one he would like to be. If he failed he was to go back to
his place, and another could come forward. The kinder-
gartners said Mother Nature wanted to make a pudding of
these rocks, stirring them in as they named themselves; and
very soon they looked quite like a conglomerate which the
kindergartner showed them.
Toward the last of our special subject, "the rock family,"
the children were asked to bring to the kindergarten in a
paper as much earth, and whatever was in it, as they could
well carry, asking their mammas for a knife to loosen the
earth, if they were allowed to dig it up in their back
yards. "I might find a fishing worm," spoke up Clifford.
*'Well, you can bring the fishing worm then." Such neatly
tied up packages as were brought! We compared the dif-
Vol. 6-27
400 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ferent loams and found rocks that matched them in color.
"Do you know what rocks are made of, Mary?" "Yes,
they're made of dirt," announced Mary. "Men make
rocks," said James. "Do you think men can make rocks?"
asked the kindergartner. " It is only God who can do that."
"I would know that God made the rocks if nobody ever did
tell me," said Ida confidently.
Our songs this month have been few. We have tried to
sing together pure tones, and the children have enjoyed
the musical steps of eight children graduated in size, each
sounding his own tone in the octave. Then we have been
steamboats passing each other on the river, each sending to
the other its own particular whistle, which means " Go to the
right." The musical steps were led up to by the children's
listening intently to the different sounds produced by strik-
ing the window, a tumbler, the door, etc. All through our
games and at certain times on the circle, such as when
hands bid "Good morning," or we remain quiet a few mo-
ments, soft melody comes from the piano. We are glad to
have Miss Hill's song book, for we find that children's
voices are not adapted nor are their emotions fitted for
much of the music heretofore prepared for them.
Some of our most spontaneous expressions of joyous yet
thoughtful activity were called out by our talk about glass,
— its transparency and the beautiful colors with which it is
sometimes tinted. We noticed the window glass through
which the sunbeams came. "How many little children
would like to have a bright flower growing in a window?
Each one of us can show it." Children raise arms, clasping
hands over head as they see kindergartner do. "I see a
flower in every window, and the glass is so clear the sunlight
can come right through." Other children go softly to these
flowers, touching them as sunbeams; for cannot they go
through glass? Again, certain children form a greenhouse
by standing some distance apart, and with clasped hands
framing windows and doors. The roof is also glass. We
now put away our flowers for the winter from outdoors
(children in bright-colored dresses for flowers), and again
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 4OI
the sunbeams dance through the doors and windows, touch-
ing the flowers to help them keep bright and blooming.
The prism throws its rainbow radiance upon the wall, and
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet rays dart about
the room (children each with a colored ball of the First
Gift). Another time the sun (child standing with arms en-
circling head) is surrounded by children, each with right
arm extending outward for radiating rays. They leave the
sun, their home, and flit about, finding what they can that
needs their warmth and brightness.
Our beautiful rock, encrusted with its crystal facets of
wonderful size and radiance, flashes in the veritable sun-
light that floods the room. It makes us think of the other
precious stones hid in the bosom of Mother Earth, each
one of which, as it comes to light, can truly say, "I too be-
long to the great rock, family, for of one substance are we
made — the earth." — Laura P. Charles, Lexington, Ky.
PLAY IN THE KINDERGARTEN.
Perhaps of all the exercises in the kindergarten, that of
play causes us the greatest anxiety. To make it what it
should be to the child, to reach Froebel's own high idea,
seems impossible. When we stand among the children, and
see the listlessness of some and the lack of attention and
enthusiasm among others, we must indeed feel sick at heart
and realize that something is radically wrong. To some,
the above picture may seem overdrawn, and I sincerely
hope that it may to all; but are we satisfied with the results
of our period for play? What is the object of this period?
Is it not to give opportunity for physical exercise, for the
play of the imagination, for the creative powers, and to
make glad the heart of the child? Must we not remember
that the whole child comes to the circle, and see that indeed
the mind and heart and body of the child are employed?
Is it not possible that instead of playing tvith the children
we make them play with us? that our personality so over-
shadows them that we shut them out from their own pure
atmosphere of spontaneity, originality, and mirth? Do you
402 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
think Johnny will often play with Tom of his own free will
and accord, if he must always play as Tom wants to? Or
does Ruth often join in the game, when by common consent
she is forced to play audience because Jennie or Sue can do
it so much better, so much more gracefully?
Let us, for a moment, put ourselves in the children's
places. We are about to join in a period of recreation, and
there stands one among us who has asked to play zvith us
{with us) and yet directs, criticises, or suggests at every
turn; one who, because she is so much larger than we are,
it is hard, even at the best, to realize she is really one with
us; and do you think it would be possible to draw from the
period the good we might otherwise have had? Yet is not
this just the position we too often take with our children?
Must we not, as kindergartners, play with the children? so
lose ourselves that all that differentiates us from the child
is absolutely lost to him, and we have in truth become, for
the time being, little children?
Who has not seen a child so absorbed in watching a bird
as to be completely lost to all immediate surroundings?
He watches him as he flies from tree to tree, or hops about
in search of crumbs; sees him as he stops to drink and
bathe at some tiny pool; and tell me if you think that one
of us could imitate that bird as he would. Impossible. We
had eyes, but we saw not as the child saw; for so completely
had he entered into that bird's existence, for the moment,
so utterly unconscious is he of self, that to be a bird, and
that bird, would be but a natural outlet to all the pent-up
feelings in his little soul.
Therefore if our morning talk and gift work have been
such as naturally suggest the bird games, not only to our
minds but to the minds of the children, ask, "Who has
ever seen a bird fly and can show me how, that I may fly?"
Immediately the circle is filled with happy, joyous birds, to
whomx the actual surroundings have disappeared. If, by
chance, some bird is flying with wings only partially out-
spread, you have only to express the fear that thai bird will
fall to earth, to see them at once extended.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 4O3
Then what is more natural than that after flight the chil-
dren light and hop about in search of crumbs? Indeed,
you need not be surprised to see one and another and an-
other fly to an imaginary pool, drink and bathe, and then
fly off to a neighboring tree to plume.
One has only to try this natural method to see the chil-
dren's enthusiastic delight in the kindergarten games. So
imaginative and creative are they, that, when left to them-
selves in this way, one seldom sees even a very simple game
played twice in quite the same way.
In closing I would say, never dictate a motion to rep-
resent any living object in a world which is so much nearer
to the child than to us; rather draw it from him; and if this
be impossible, lead him back to Nature and let him learn of
her. — Grace A. Wood, Boston.
SOME HOMELY QUESTIONS.
The request comes from a troubled Connecticut kinder-
gartner to have the following homely questions practically
answered by wiser or more experienced workers. We in-
vite these answers to be made in the February number of
this magazine.
1. What can be done to prevent the children from lean-
ing upon the tables? what to keep them from tipping the
chairs back? and how may these habits be permanently
overcome?
2. What is the best way to divide the three hours of
the morning session into proportionate work and play
time? If a half hour is left over after the regular work,
how shall it be best filled?
3. Is it wise to tell a story every day, or does that lead
to the familiarity that breeds contempt?
4. Should the games always bear directly on the subject
of the morning talk, and how shall we regulate this when
the children are left to free choice?
404
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
i"
EatfeK'
ASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN. NO. V.
( Written for the ''Kindergarten Magazine")
THE GOBLINS VISIT VENUS.
COPYRIGHTED,
The goblins had enjoyed
"•■.. their trip to the moon so much
"■•.. ■•. that they made up their minds
to pay a little visit to the dif-
- ferent planets, and see what
Sixty ■ • ^
■ they were like. As they had
; heard that it was rather uncom-
. fortably warm on Mercury, the
planet which is the next-door
neighbor to the sun, they de-
cided to pay a visit to the
planet Venus, which is just be-
tween Mercury and our earth. The planet Venus was
just at that time shining in the western sky early in the
evenings, and looked very beautiful indeed. She had
adorned herself with a very bright dress of sunbeams,
which she had borrowed from the sun, and she shone far
more brilliantly than any of the stars in the sky. She
seemed very well satisfied with herself, the goblins said, as
they looked at her through a big telescope they found on
the top of a house which people called an observatory.
The owner of the telescope was taking a peep at Venus,
himself, when the goblins slipped in; and whilst he was
making some notes in a book, they all had a good look.
They had only just crept out of the way in time, when the
astronomer closed the dome of the observatory with a snap,
and one little goblin narrowly escaped being snapped in
two.
However, the goblins were now determined to visit the
beautiful planet Venus, for they had heard so much about
it, and that it was very much like our own earth; also that
it was nearly as large as our earth, and much larger than
the planet Mercury. They heard that the days were about
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT, 4O5
thirty-five minutes shorter than
ours, but that the year lasted
only 225 days. As Venus travels
much nearer to the sun than our
earth does, the sun not only ap-
pears twice as large, but was also
much warmer, as the goblins
soon found out for themselves
as they came nearer to Venus.
They also found that she was ^ ,,
, , . , CrobUTi5 on. Vtti.u.5
surrounded with a mantle or
clouds, which glistened brightly in the sunlight; but as the
goblins made their way to the planet they made the disagree-
able discovery that it was raining, and raining hard, too. In
fact, they were told that it is nearly always raining there;
and as they could get all the rain they wanted on earth,
without taking a trip to Venus, they made up their minds
to return home again as soon as they could. They were
indeed sadly disappointed in Venus, for they had expected
to find her covered with bright and sparkling silver; and
instead of that, she was only made of mud and gravel, just
as our own earth is; and as it rained continually, there was
far more mud than gravel. Then the goblins were sur-
prised to find that she had borrowed all her light from the
sun, just as our moon does. When the goblins bade fare-
well to this planet, they could not help thinking that this
was certainly a case where "distance lent enchantment to
the view," and that as Venus looked decidedly better wdien
seen from afar, they preferred to return to their own little
earth, and watch her from a comfortable distance, where she
would appear again as beautiful as ever. After deciding to
take their next trip to the planet Mars, they said good-by,
and cordially wished each other a bright and happy new
year. — Mary Proctor.
406 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
HOW THE FROST MAN WORKS. '
Jack Frost looked forth one clear, still night,
And whispered, "Now is the sun all out of sight.
So through the valley and over the height
In silence I'll take my way.
I will not go on like the blustering train, —
The wind, the snow, the hail, and the rain.
Who make so much bustle and noise in vain,
But just as busy I'll be as they."
So he flew to the mountain and powdered its crest,
He lit on the trees, and their boughs he dressed
In diamond beads, and over the breast
Of the quivering lake he spread
A coat of mail, that it need not fear
The downward point of many a spear
That he hung on its margin far and near,
Where a rock could rear its head.
He flew to the windows of those who slept.
And over each pane like a fairy crept;
Wherever he breathed, wherever he stepped,
By the light of the moon were seen
Most beautiful things: there were flowers and trees;
There were bevies of birds and swarms of bees;
There were cities and temples and towers, and these
All pictured in silver sheen.
He went {sLt/irst this seemed hardly fair) —
He went to the cupboard, and finding there
That all had forgotten for him to prepare, —
"Now, just to set them a-thinking,
I'll touch this basket of fruit," said he;
"And this plate of bananas here, — one, two, three, —
And the glass of water they've left for me.
Shall tick! to tell them I'm drinking."
— /. McA.
SONG OF THE SEWING MACHINE
Busily
Turn-ing whirl-ing, turn - ing, whirl-iog-, Stitching all the day,
Whirl-ing turn-ing-, whirl-ing, turn-ing Work is done to stay. Your
bu - sy
feet
are
m
Dv-in
g fas
t, An
d
that
=
how I
[III
g
1 For
#=^
\ ] - •
=1
M
J
*
—
-J— a
1 — •
=1
, J^
• ^
-M^-
— ? — F — T—
J^-^" ^
A — * r _j
:y-fH — i
•
— '—
"* "
L-F
ii^
'
L-i—
—
^
^ :
they move they say to me. Ma -chine! go fast or slow.
From "Song Stories for the Kindergarten," by permission.
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NURSERY. — PLAYING WITH THE BABY.
II.
When our young philosopher is about three months old
the awakening of his consciousness begins. It is the con-
quest of his limitations that makes a man greater than he
that taketh a city. So the child is to become a soldier in
the beginning of this mastery, and the wise mother will
commence the training that will bring about the voluntary
service in the conquest of this self — which must be mas-
tered by slow degrees in early life; for if there is not
voluntary self-mastery in youth, which gives freedom in
maturity, there will be compelled submission to fate, or
destiny, whose discipline is stern and inexorable, and eman-
cipation from its bondage slow and painful.
The will is the special faculty of the soul that is to
be developed harmoniously, disciplined and strengthened.
The great purpose of all true education is the training of
the individual will into harmony with the universal, the
divine will. For as soon as the individual determines of
himself to will only the will of God, his education is com-
plete. The philosophy underlying the kindergarten system
aims to lead the mother into such intimate relationship with
nature, law, and progress that she may with wise intuition
consciously direct the baby life in play, in the way that will
develop in the child the greatest amount of well-directed
self-determining power. In glad play the mother can di-
rect the action of the little dimpled limbs, and from vague,
aimless movement she can surely develop clearly defined
purpose and power. Froebel tells us how we have been
doing it unconsciously for ages; and it is on this instinctive
play with the child on the part of the mother that he has
founded his system of child training through play. His
great mission to the world was to awaken women to a con-
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 4O9
sciousness of their power that they might intelligently
guide the wills of their children toward divine unfoldment.
The parents should be filled with the idea that life here on
the earth is a glorious privilege, wherein the human will
conforms itself consciously with the divine. This thought
will invest the humblest duty or service with divine sig-
nificance. The simple play between mother and child is
of holy import, and should be as joyously spontaneous
with the mother as with the child. Study the "Play of the
Limbs" in the "Mother- Play Book," and from its simple
instruction evolve from your own instinctive mother life
the conscious intelligence necessary for the right directing
of the child's growing energy.
When the child begins to look about vaguely, hang a
soft red or bright orange-colored ball where he can rest his
eyes upon it without any strain on the muscles of the eyes.
Hang it within his reach, so that when the desire comes to
grasp it he can easily do so. The ball should be soft, that
it may be agreeable to his touch. He will be interested
in this ball for many days or weeks, and then he will want
to use his limbs more freely and vigorously, as every
mother knows so well. The aimless movements of the
hands and feet can be so directed as to gradually awaken
in him a purpose in these movements. Press your hands
against his hands and place his feet against your breast, and
encourage him to push with all his strength. His delight
in thus testing his newly discovered strength should be
fully equaled by your joy in his awakening intelligence and
activity. Joyous, glad response on the part of the mother
cannot be overestimated. If she is glad, the child will be
also; and motherhood should be supremely joyous, and all
phases of the babe's unfolding strength and awakening
intelligence should be greeted with hearty joy from the
mother. Mother, it is in your power to so direct the will of
your child in play that all the opposition he meets through
life may be but a glad testing of strength to him, day by
day, year by year. Think how much you can do for your
child if you are able to direct his amusements, even, until
410 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
he has reached maturity! Through play, the child will
grow strong in body, will learn to move his limbs with a
definite purpose, and the mind awakens to an intelligent
consciousness of its bright and happy surroundings. — A/ma
N. Kendall.
DISCOVERED — THE FOUNTAIN OF PERPETUAL YOUTH.
There are gains for all our losses,
There are balms for all our pain;
But when youth, the dream, departs.
It takes something from our hearts,
And it never comes again.
We are stronger, we are better.
Under manhood's sterner reign;
But we feel that something sweet
Followed youth with flying feet.
And will never come again.
Something beautiful is vanished.
And we sigh for it in vain.
We behold it everywhere,
On the earth and in the air.
But it never comes again.
These lines place plainly before us the usual thought
that almost everything nice belongs to childhood and
youth, and that relegates to later life almost nothing but
burdens, sighs, and regretful feelings. However, the time
for calmly accepting customary ideas is passing, and we
are going to think a little before we admit that we must
passively accept so uninviting a fate.
The "something sweet" is natural to youth, because
youth knows not care; but that it "is vanished," while we
still "behold it everywhere," is not only a fallacy in verse,
but in reality. It is around us, "on the earth and in the
air," and it can "come again," if we have been so unwise as
to allow it to "follow youth with flying feet." In truth, if
"when youth, the dream, departs, it takes something from
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 4II
our hearts," it is our own fault if we allow the "some-
thing" to go, and the grand mistake of a lifetime if we do
not seek to recover it as soon as we discover the loss.
The arrival of the time when we must accept care and
responsibility does not necessarily imply the departure of
sweetness, freshness, and buoyancy. The spirit with which
we accept earnest life makes all the difference. We can
take up every burden with a growl or a groan, or a frown-
ing "Oh, how heavy you are!" or we can meet it with a
cheery laugh, and say "Come on; I'll carry you. You shall
not get the best of me."
The spirit of youth stops at nothing; knows no fear;
has the smile ready before the tear; is optimistic; grasps
every present good and enjoyment; does not search for
blots upon the landscape, or for faults in friends, or for
things to worry about; crosses no bridges before they are
reached; and when reached, crosses with a happy readiness
any description of bridge, be it a narrow, shaking piank, a
slippery log, a treacherous draw, a railroad bridge with
only ties to walk upon, or a respectable, well-built, stone-
foundationed, safe structure across a peaceful stream.
This spirit of youth, which is a perfect armor in the
battle of life, we must strive to retain, as we must strive for
all qualities of character, as well as for all material advan-
tages, when we reach the age of understanding. We see it
developed in a few choice characters. They are the people
always in demand. They are the good friends; the ones
we choose to be with; who uplift us when we are sunken
deep in despondency, who cheer us and make us believe
life is worth the living. They are the efficient ones in
times of emergency. They meet death itself with a smile,
and with thoughts not of its terrors, but of the friends
about them.
Such people, it is noticeable, are always fond of chil-
dren; and the children, in return, adore them. And why?
The child recognizes a kin to its own nature. The "some-
thing sweet" is not missing. The congeniality is perfect.
Surely, then, there can be no better way to keep or to
412 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
gain this enviable spirit than by holding close intimacy
with youth! For those of us who have children, this is
easy to accomplish. We can grow up a second time with
them. The world is ever moving onward, and between the
time of our own childhood and the time of our children's
childhood, new and better methods of doing, saying, and
thinking are developed. We must not hug too closely our
more aged ideas, but endeavor to be receptive.
Not long ago, a father whose daughter was taught in
school to use the broad sound of the letter "a," informed
her, upon her endeavor to carry out her instruction in her
conversation, that she might talk after that fashion in
school if she were obliged to, but he did not want to hear
any of it about him. This is the spirit that helps us to
grow old. If we cling so to the old, we must become old.
If we grasp the new and fresh thoughts, will we not keep
youthful and fresh minded ourselves? With our children
around us full of growing thoughts and blossoming ideas,
we are so encompassed with chances to keep young that
we have actually to resist them. We do, and there goes
the "something sweet."
"Our day is past," we say. "It is the young folks' turn
now." Never was a greater mistake. Our day is not past
until our eyes are closed forever. We can play with our
children, read with them, learn with them, enjoy with them.
Do you not know you can enjoy your boy's first baseball
nine as much as you did your own? But you don't. You
go off to a corner of the piazza or to your den, and smoke
your cigar and look solemn, and brood over your young
days gone. Why don't you go to work and have them over
again? Take off your coat and your stiff collar, take up
the bat, and limber out your arms once more. Coach the
youngsters. You will be surprised at the result in yourself
and in your son. You will feel young, and he will seek
your companionship, and be so proud to have "his father"
as an umpire when his "nine" plays a match game!
And the mother sits worrying because father made five
hundred dollars less this year than last; and wondering
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 4I3
what things are coming to; and troubling about the serv-
ants, when nine times out of ten she, to say nothing of
them, would be far better off if left alone even in thoughts.
Let her turn to her boys and girls, see what they are doing,
and enter in. Let her have a game of checkers with Tom;
or let her play "hide and seek" with the smaller ones; or
let her help Edith dress up a doll house; and let her not
only go through the form of the play, but let her throw off
her years, put on youthfulness, as an actress changes her
appearance in the green room; and let her enter heartily
into the play, no matter though it be an effort at first. It is
safe to promise that before she knows it she will be feel-
ing five years younger, and will have forgotten all about the
five hundred dollars.
Don't I know what I am talking about? Didn't I feel
•myself growing stiff and en?nncd, and didn't I see my boy
traveling in one direction while I traveled in another — or,
rather, sat still? And didn't I learn tennis to see if it
would mend matters any? And don't I find that when I
am physically tired and mentally worn out, that a brisk
turn on the courts will make me a juvenile again? And
doesn't my boy often hunt me up, and don't we have some
good sets together? And didn't he come to me the other
day and say, "Why, Mamma, you're the only mother I
know that plays tennis!" And don't I know he thinks I'm
jolly and young and nice? And don't I feel so, too? I
assure you that the exertion the beginning cost me has
repaid me a dozen times.
You see I am not claiming that the "something sweet"
which is natural to youth, is as natural to older years.
Some natures retain it more easily than others; but I con-
tend that all natures may attain it by effort.
Oh, if people only knew how young they might be all
their lives if they only would! If they only would not
make themselves grow old! If the time, force, and vitality
used up in retrospecting, in regretting youth, and in efforts
to accept what is thought inevitable and grow old — if all
this power were only turned in another direction and put
414 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
forth in a determination to simply be young, the result
would be surprising!
It may be unbelievable that games with children, talks
with them, walks with them, — in a word, real, intimate com-
panionship with them as one of them, is enjoyable or even
possible. We stand upon the summit of our years and gaze
down upon them. We stretch down a long arm. They
can just grasp the tip of our longest finger with their small
hands; and so, with our heads high in air, we travel along,
side by side, yet far apart. Would we but descend from
our high and mighty position, to get down among them,
and, dropping our conventionally gained wisdom, bend our
heads to heed their lisping words, watch their miniature
doings, and follow their quaint thoughts, we would find
ourselves in a world we knew not existed about us. It is a
sunny world, full of sweetness, for the hearts of its inhab-
itants are fresh and pure; full of truth, for the souls that
dwell there reflect, mirror-like, its thoughts; full of logic,
for the minds that move it are unbiased; full of honesty,
for the little people are not troubled by considerations. In
this world exists the fountain of perpetual youth. We may
drink of it if we will.
And do you know, it all resolves itself into a saying
from that wonderful Book in which we find a simple, true
expression for so many of our thoughts, — "Except ye be-
come as a little child, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of
heaven." Those possessed of the spirit of youth are carry-
ing around in their hearts a perpetual kingdom of heaven;
and how much wiser to have it here now than to postpone
it indefinitely!
Thus would we make our lives to consist of, first, our
first childhood, when we are naturally happy and joyful;
then our second childhood, when, though "we are stronger,
we are better," we still insist upon keeping the "something
sweet"; and lastly, when our muscles are tired and ready
to relax, and our life is almost spent, we sit dozing, and
dreamily and enjoyingly live over, during our third child-
hood, not only the few first careless years of life, but the
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 4I5
many more of a youthful, joyous, cheerful existence. — Bar-
retta Brown.
THE MOUNTAIN MAPLE LEAF S STORY.
One bright October morning the sun was shining across
the hills, and we Maple leaves, swinging back and forth in
our Mother Maple's arms, were warming ourselves by his
big bright fire. Dear Mother Maple was in a broad smile
as she saw her rosy children in the morning sunshine wear-
ing dresses of a beautiful red, a real carmine. You have
seen the exact color in your paint boxes, I know, and the
children who go out into the woods in the fall know exactly
how we looked.
Think what a dear, good mother we had! She wove the
goods and cut every one of our gowns by the same pattern,
I believe, only she made some larger and some smaller, just
to suit the size of every one of us.
And besides us Maple children there were — oh! ever so
many other nice children out there on the mountain side.
There was good Mrs. Sumach, one of our nearest neighbors;
her children loved red, too, so all the little Sumachs wore
red frocks; just as red as could be, they were, too, when the
sun shone on them. Then next door on the other side was
where Mrs. Sourwood lived. Now don't think her children
were not nice because they had that kind of name, for they
were just as well behaved and had on just as nice red fall
gowns as any of us; not quite so "fixy" as ours, but then
such a lovely shade of red! I think she borrowed Mrs. Su-
mach's pattern to cut them by, and changed it ever so little
to suit her taste.
But I forgot; I started to tell the story of us Maple chil-
dren, and here I am telling you about my neighbors. But
they were so lovely I couldn't help saying something about
them.
As I was saying, we Maple children were swinging back
and forth, back and forth, now high, now low, when we
heard a voice saying, "Please, Papa, do get me some of
Vol. 6-26
4l6 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
those beautiful Maple leaves. Oh, they are so lovely!"
"Yes, Gracie," he said; and just then a strong hand took us
from our Mother Maple's arms and laid us in a pretty little
cart drawn by two ponies, and away we went down the road.
I looked back to catch a last glimpse of our mother, but a
sudden turn in the road hid her from view. Of course at first
I wanted to be back with our beautiful mother, Mountain
Maple, but when I looked up and saw how glad we were
making the little girl called Gracie, we were soon glad too.
Then when we saw she could not run along like other chil-
dren, but had to lean on her papa's arm when she got out
of the cart and went into the house, we were so glad we had
pleased her!
She took us into a pretty room — her room, she called it
— where there were such dainty curtains at the windows, —
something like the cobwebs we had seen out on the moun-
tains,— and all kinds of pretty things on tables and all
about, and holding us up, said: "Now, Papa, won't I be
happy when I show these to the little children here in our
great big city, who never saw such beautiful leaves before?"
He patted her cheek and smiled; for he loved her, I
could see.
Soon she laid us gently away between the leaves of a
big book, then put a whole lot more on top, to "press" us,
she said. We wondered what she wanted to do with us, for
we thought the little children she spoke of couldn't see us
there, all shut up in the dark between the leaves of a book.
But in a few days she took us out, saying, "Oh, my darling
Maple children, you didn't know why Gracie pressed you
so hard, did you? Well, I wanted to keep you beautiful
and bright all winter long, after the snow falls, when all
of your little sister Maples and neighbors, the Sumachs and
Sourwoods, will be out there on the mountain in the cold,
under the snows, with their dresses all wet and the color
spoiled."
Laughing is catching, and her smiling face made us
smile, too, not thinking she could see us; but she said, "Oh,
my little ones, I see how bright you are looking! I knew
mothers' department. 417
you would be happy, because you are going to make ever
so many little children happy by and by."
She took a soft brush and gave every one of us a nice
shining coat of white varnish, that made us look real pretty,
we thought; and then, shutting us up in a box, she left us
there a long time, it seemed to us. But by that time we
didn't mind it much, for we believed what Gracie told us,
and knew she would bring us out some day.
Early one morning when we were dozing so quietly,
waiting for her to come, she put her hand in and held us
up. Sure enough, there were ever so many little bright
eyes gazing at us as if they never saw our like before.
Then our Gracie said, "See, my little friends, while we are
enjoying our Christmas dinner, I thought we would want
something bright and cheery to look at; so I will hang
these crimson Maple leaves right here on the wall, with the
ivy and holly; then when we are ready to go home I will
pin a red, rosy leaf on each little coat, and you may take it
home with you to keep and remember our joyful Christmas
day."
Just then ever so many little hands clapped, and ever so
many little feet danced, and ever so many little tongues
said, "Oh, I'm so glad — so glad! Our Father sent it, —
didn't he, — just like he did our good dinner." And all
thought how they would make mother glad when they
showed her the beautiful Maple-leaf child. — A. Bealert, Lex-
iiigtoti, Ky.
SERVICE UNCOUNTED.
In these days when parents are tempted to purchase the
service of their own children, it is often a difficult matter to
secure the proper appreciation for service rendered unless
paid for. It may be profitable for children to know the
values of money and trade, and it may be desirable in some
cases to make ways of earning money open to them. But
the line should be sharply drawn to duty, and voluntary
helpfulness and expressions of affection rendered in un-
4l8 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
counted services. A foreigner visiting our land during the
past year, has somewhere caught the impress that business is
the ruling god of our universe. He substantiates his ac-
cusation by quoting how little children fill their ornamental
banks with dimes and dollars earned by doing favors for
their fathers and mothers.
Every child can understand the duty of helping in the
home, because he has a constant object lesson before him, —
mother doing all day long. Every child can understand
that one good turn deserves another. Every child is anx-
ious to be useful, and needs only a little encouragement.
Every child enjoys being a factor in the world's work; he
needs but be appreciated. All these points of knowledge
may be brought to children in stories and songs.
The Christmas story in the Child-Gardoi is named "St.
Christopher." It tells of an earnest saint who worked long
and hard and unquestioningly in ordinary ways for many
years. He always did the duty just at hand. One day it
came to him to carry the Christ child across the stream, and
he learned the lesson of what comes to him who waits. Do-
ing one's duty makes a substantial background of character
which nothing else may gainsay.
Mothers, whose years of unstinted, unregretted labor
bring them the fruits of a glad and joyous household of use-
ful men and women, know what this reward is. A child
should never know by word or action that parental duty is
irksome. All children should know that humble, hard, un-
rewarded work is still a privilege. That royal German
motto, '' Ich dien," might be written over every nursery door-
way with righteous effect. Willing service makes St. Chris-
tophers, who, because ready for every duty and opportunity,
never miss the great ones when they come. — A. H.
HELPING SANTA GLAUS.
It was the day before Christmas. There was a jolly
bustle and hustle all through the house. Everybody was
getting everything ready.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 4I9
Nannie had just been laying the library fire in the grate,
and had gone to carry out the ash pan. The fender was
pushed back and the screen was off at one side, so Noel and
Mary could step right close and look up the chimney.
Noel put his hands on his knees and almost put his nose
in the soot, as he tried to get a good view. "I don't see,
Sister, how Santa Claus can get down there."
Little Mary strained her blue eyes to see up the dark
hole, and shook her blond curls, saying: "I don't know."
" It's just awful small," said Noel sadly; then he shouted:
"But oh, goody! I can see the top; truly, I can see right
through to the sky."
His nose was in the soot now; but no matter. Sister's
curls were, too, as she exclaimed: "That makes it all right,
of course."
"He'll have to squeeze pretty much; he'll have to
squeeze like jelly," said Noel.
"Will he cry?" asked Sister, sympathetically.
"Oh no! he's a brave man; he won't cry. Besides, if he
did he would get his face too dirty, crying in that soot. I
tell you how I guess he does: he's probably like our rubber
ball; don't you know how it all squeezes up flat, and then
pops out all right?"
"That's the way he does, I know," said Sister, clapping
her hands, "Now we know how he can come."
"He's bound to come, that's sure; but it's good we can
see how."
"Is he sure to come to everybody? How can he have
enough things?"
"Well, he doesn't always have enough for poor children.
I think we ought to help him."
"I think so too. Let's give him our pennies, so he can
get something for everybody."
"All right; then we will."
The children brought their little purses and laid them in
the throat of the chimney, where Santa Claus would be sure
to see them. They were sure he would understand about it,
for he understands everything.
420 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Nannie put the grate in order and went on with her
work, and the children went back to their play. When they
grew hungry, before lunch, Noel said: "I should think
Santa Claus would get hungry today too, he has so much to
do; suppose we fix him a little lunch."
"Yes, that would please him^ — dear old Santa! We will
save him some from our lunch."
Mamma was busy at lunch time, so the children were
left to themselves. They took some bread and chicken and
cookies, and wrapped them in a piece of tissue paper as
they had seen Mamma fix World's Fair lunches, and laid
the package close in the corner by the fender. There
Mamma found it when hanging-up-stocking time came.
Noel told what they wanted to do, and Mamma's eyes were
very bright, as she said: "I will help Santa Claus too."
Together with Papa she packed a big basket with good
things to eat, warm things to wear, and some toys, and an
envelope with money in it. Then the children said "Sweet
good night!" and went off to bed and lovely dreams.
What do you suppose they found in the morning? Full
stockings, of course; full to overflowing — just perfectly
splendid. But there were the basket and the purses, with a
little note, saying:
"My sweet children, thank you very much for the lunch;
it was just what I wanted. I want you to know what a won-
derful, beautiful thing Christmas giving is, so you may help
me by leaving this basket at the Flinn's and the purses at
the mission school; then you will understand better than
ever what a gloriously happy man is
"Your friend, S. C."
"Oh, Mamma, may we?" exclaimed the children.
"Yes; Papa and I will go too."
So the family started off with a sled load. They almost
cried when they saw the joy of the poor children; and they
learned that bright morning the best meaning of Christmas,
for Noel said: "I am going to help Santa Claus every time;
Christmas giving is so much better than Christmas getting."
— Hal Owen.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. _ 42]
ONE HOUR OF PLAY.
Said Mamma to Baby one Christmas night,
"Now for our bedtime frolic, my dear!
Let's sit by this window, in the warm light,
So when Papa comes, he can see us here."
And thus with their rollicking, romping fun, —
Babe, with her eyes like a sparkling day.
And Mamma, glad with her little one, —
They passed an hour in happy play.
Outside in the darkness, wandering by,
A homeless boy, with gathering frown,
Was muttering, "No use to try!
It's too hard to be honest, here in town!"
But a glance at the window turned his thought
To the mother-love he once had known.
And he said, "No, I will live as I ought!"
And he went his way, no more alone.
" ' Peace and good will,' — 'tis an idle song,"
Said a man, made bitter by one false friend;
"This life is nothing but sin and wrong,
A struggle for self, from beginning to end."
But the words died out on his lips for shame,
As the window-framed picture caught his eye.
And the thought of the little Christ child came
To soften his heart, as he hurried by.
Another passer looked on the scene,
And thought of a baby he had lost,
Till he quite forgot to be hard and mean,
And warm tears melted his cold heart-frost;
And the thought of love and its blessings grew
Till it ripened into a generous deed,
And he found a gladness strange and new,
In making a Christmas for those in need.
Mamma and Baby, tired at last
With romping play, both fell asleep.
Not knowing their light such a glow had cast
Out into the winter darkness deep.
The boy had found new courage to live;
The cynic a gleam of clearer day;
Another had learned to nobly give, —
And all through the baby's bedtime play.
— Grace Faye Koo7i.
FIELD NOTES.
Kmdergarten Possibilities. — The following comprehensive statement
of the purposes and extent of the kindergarten appeared as an editorial
in a recent number of the Jacksonville (Fla.) Times-Unio7i. We reprint
it for the benefit of the local press in various communities where there
is a desire to put before the people a clear and non-technical statement
of this study of little children. The article is also a fair sample of the
just appreciation in which every community should hold the work of
kindergarten associations: "Until very recently the kindergarten sys-
tem of education was a something practically unknown in Florida, and
even now the people of the state are not in touch with it outside the
city of Jacksonville, with perhaps one or two inconsiderable exceptions;
and it is with a view to awakening the interest of the entire state in its
methods and the far-reaching and beneficent effects of its work that the
Times-Union this morning invites the attention of Florida readers
everywhere to the brief outline of the plans and purposes of the South-
ern Kindergarten Association, published elsewhere in this issue. With
all due respect to the average mother, it is doubtful if more than two in
five of them ever rear their children after any well-defined plan or sys-
tem, or even make a study of their peculiarities of temperament before
'training them up in the way they should go.' This is especially true
of mothers who are blessed with more than one child, or whose circum-
stances compel close attention to a great variety of daily duties. The
rich are not excepted from this general statement, for where the means
are ample for the employment of nurses, governesses, and tutors for
the care and training and instruction so essential to material education
and character building, tjiose employed are quite as deficient in system
as the mothers themselves. So it is sometimes a source of wonder that
we find so many good men and women in the world, to say nothing of
the well-bred ones who are encountered. It actually looks more like
good luck in their rearing than the result of the pursuit of any intelli-
gent method. While mother love and good intentions are almost uni-
versal, there are very, very few mothers who will not admit that they
constantly feel the need in the care of their children of a something
beyond their motherly instincts and the devices of training and disci-
pline suggested by their own limited experience. It is this need which
the kindergarten system supplies, and its helpful methods span the
whole period from babyhood to middle life. The women composing
the kindergarten association here, and those whom they have called to
their aid in inaugurating this great work, have it in their power to so
build upon the foundations already laid, that their present institution
may be developed into a great college or university which shall regu-
FIELD NOTES. 423
larly supply the material for the expansion of the system over the entire
state of Florida, and perhaps into neighboring commonwealths. But
they must have popular support at the outset; for with this secured,
endowment and liberal benefactions will follow sooner or later. Aside
from the training and education of young children, and the helpful
direction of mothers in the work of home government and breeding,
the normal instruction for young women is a most important feature of
our new Jacksonville institution. The kindergarten is undoubtedly to
be the principal educational system of the future, and it holds out to
young women the very highest inducements, both material and other-
wise, for preparing themselves to become instructors in its institutions.
Beyond question there will be a general demand for kindergarten
teachers from all parts of Florida within the next two or three years,
and those who take an early advantage of the institution which has just
opened its doors in this city, will be eagerly sought after. One has only
to make a casual observation of its work to find the system rapidly
growing upon him. The influence for good of the institution can
hardly be measured. It must of necessity be immediate and far reach-
ing.
M. Gabriel Compayre has written out his impressions of the Chi-
cago educational congresses in the October number of the Educational
Review. We make a few quotations from his happy comments: "The
educational congresses of Chicago were of the greatest importance,
because of the diversity of the questions treated and because of the
number of educators who took part, as speakers or as auditors. Presi-
dent Angell of the University of Michigan, who played there a brilliant
role, had reason to say: 'Never before has there been such a revival of
interest in education in this country.' " Among other appreciative com-
ments on the part played by women in this congress, he says: "I do not
wish to wrong the men, but it is certain that the women had a most
prominent part in the work of the congresses. I desire to mention at least
the names of some of those whose communications were especially
interesting in the kindergarten and other sections. Mrs. S. B. Cooper,
of California, treated the pretty subject — 'Every Mother a Kindergart-
ner.' Miss Angeline Brooks, of New York, spoke of the relations of
play and work; Mrs. Kate Tupper Galpin, of Pasadena, Cal., spoke on
methods of teaching ethics in schools; and Mrs. Thane Miller, of Cin-
cinnati, discoursed upon the education of girls. But how shall I men-
tion all the names? At least let me not forget Miss Josephine Locke,
of Chicago, who, with so much fascination and gentleness, animated, by
her words and presence, several of the special meetings. This is cer-
tainly one of the characteristic traits of the educational reunion of the
universal Exposition of 1893, — the development of the role of women in
the public meetings. Miss Susan B. Anthony remarked in one of the
meetings, that she recalled the fact that women teachers were not al-
424 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
lowed to speak in meeting fifty years ago. ' Aujourd'hui,' she added,
' women are asserting themselves and taking their place in every de-
partment of the world's work."
Miss Anna E. Bryan, who until June was superintendent and train-
ing teacher of the Louisville work, is now in New York city, where she
is engaged studying art subjects under Professor Stimson. On her res-
ignation Miss Patty S. Hill was elected to fill her place, being thor-
oughly competent through several years' experience as principal of
Holcomb Mission Kindergarten. The entire work is in a flourishing
condition, the kindergartens all being well attended, while the normal
classes are full. Several months ago the standard for admission to the
training class was raised, both as regards age and competency. The
age was raised from eighteen to twenty years, while besides a thorough
English course one must have studied, as a groundwork, botany, physi-
ology, zoology, physics, and ancient, mediaeval, and modern history. It
was at first feared the classes would be small on account of such a high
standard; but on the contrary, the numbers are large and the material
the better on account of such good and thorough preparation. One
feature recently added to the work is the Kindergarten Club, the object
of which is to unify the interests of all the graduates. The club meets
every fourth week, and thus the graduates, though engaged in their
several branches of kindergarten work, are brought together to find a
common interest at each meeting. The club is the alumni of the kin-
dergarten training class, about sixty-seven in number. These are
divided into committees of ten, each of which is to furnish the enter-
tainment at one meeting of the club. The influence of the club has
proved beneficial to the work in every respect.
The topic of education has come to share the attention of the
"woman's column" in many periodicals. It must be that the kinder-
garten is become fashionable, and children are again reckoned a part
of human society. The following paragraph is taken from a substantial
report of the Rockford (111.) kindergartens: " If this work has a refining,
ennobling influence on the child, what is the effect on the teacher?
Study the face of any kindergartner you meet who has been long in the
work, and you will not need to be told that the character of one con-
stantly employed in exercising only the most lovable traits for the
example and benefit of little children, is enriched and beautified beyond
estimate. As the system benefits the children it also benefits the young
women, increases their resources, and makes them better women and
better mothers. A very pleasant and profitable feature of the work is
the mothers' meetings, which are attended by members of the board
and mothers of the pupils, for the purpose of exchanging ideas and dis-
cussing plans for the benefit of the children. A more thorough under-
standing and greater sympathy and harmony are thus insured. As a
rule, the children who enter the schools remain. When it is remem-
FIELD NOTES. 425
bered that of all the children in the land who have received a thorough
kindergarten training not one has swelled the criminal list, the benefit
is so apparent that argument is unnecessary."
Emma Marivedel. — On Sunday, November ig, 1893, occurred the
funeral of Miss Marwedel, in the Unitarian church of Oakland, Cal.
Appropriate music and simple services were followed by a brief address
from the following personal friends of Miss Marwedel and her work;
Rev. C. W. Wendte, Professor Albin Putzker, Mr.|Earl Barnes, and
Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper. Miss Marwedel has long been regarded as the
mother kindergartner of the state of California, as well as one of the
pioneers who have set the ball rolling on this continent. The funeral
services were attended by the most distinguished educators of the
coast, the state university as well as the Stanford being represented.
Miss Marwedel was detained from attending the educational congresses
during the past summer, but hearty greetings were sent her, in the name
of the kindergartners of the country. She has lived to see fruition in
her own work, and what is a source of far greater joy, she has seen the
same work taken up by the succeeding generations and carried on into
new and unnumbered channels.
There is a growing inquiry for kindergarten help for the Sunday-
school workers. These confess the deficiencies among them as to the
understanding of children, as well as the principles of teaching. Good
will is a great factor in such work, but does not take the place of insight
and understanding. The Glen Home of Cincinnati makes a special
department of . kindergarten training. Their circular states: "While
many states are waiting to solve this problem, — Shall the kindergarten
be made a part of the public school system? — churches, ministers, and
home missionary societies have become deeply impressed with and
interested in this phase of mission work, and are establishing kinder-
gartens as powerful adjuncts to Sunday school and mission churches.
Trained teachers are in demand. We hope young ladies will avail
themselves of this training; not only those who expect to make it their
profession, but any young woman of leisure, as there is no better prep-
aration for home life, Sunday-school teaching, or mission work.
Mr. AND Mrs. W. N. Hailmann withdrew from the editorship of
The New Education, on November i, Mr. and Mrs. Hailmann have
served in the pioneer ranks of the "new education" cause for a quarter
of a century. Every teacher, every kindergartner, and hosts of chil-
dren owe them much. When they undertake a task we know that it is
conscientiously entered upon, and their work as practical pedagogues
has ever been pursued in this spirit. Their coworkers confess and
appreciate the quality of warmth which underlies their work, the need
of which is never lost sight of by them, although both stand strongly
and zealously for conscientious demonstration.
426 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus exhibit, which attracted much atten-
tion at the World's Fair, was honored with a medal of award. The
greater part of the exhibit will remain in this country, some in Chicago
and a part in the East. The Grotemeyer drawings and water colors
which so happily illustrated the life of the institute in its daily opera-
tion, are owned by the National Gallery of Berlin, with a few excep-
tions, which are the property of the Empress Frederick. The patrons
of this remarkable educational home have brought out a most valuable
portfolio of reprints of these drawings, which could be used with pecul-
iar advantage in any schoolroom or drawing-room. These sketches, in
which children are found working, playing, and cooperating with their
elders after the inimitable fashion of the kindergarten, executed with
sincere artistic feeling, have a permanent value, for which every stu-
dent of child nature may be grateful. A limited number of these port-
folios, as w.e understand, are for sale in Berlin.
The Philadelphia branch of the I. K. U. has purchased one of the
decorative panels of the Children's Building, having selected the story
of the "Three Bears." The woody distance, and the humoresque
mother bear discoursing with father and baby bear as they approach
the house where Golden Locks is making" herself at home, are full of
suggestion and happy feeling for children. The Alcott School, of Lake
Forest, 111., has selected and purchased another of these panels, repre-
senting the Teutonic myth of the "Siegfried." The fair but sturdy boy
sits in the shade of overhanging boughs, for the time suspending his
own pipe music to listen to the bird calls and voices of the woods. One
of the children of the school helped the artist by sitting for the boy
Siegfried. Other panels of the decorative frieze will be placed in free
schools and college settlements, having been paid for out of the com-
mon fund of contributions.
The teachers of the National City (Cal.) schools have formed a maga-
zine club. That is, each teacher subscribes for some one of the standard
magazines, and after he or she has read it, the magazine is then passed
to another teacher, who is allowed the privilege of retaining it five days.
At the expiration of this time it is passed on to the next teacher, who is
allowed the same chance to peruse it, and so on around the club until it
comes back at last to the owner of the magazine, who keeps it. Each
member thus has the opportunity of reading many of the best maga-
zines published, and at an expense of the cost of only one magazine.
The following is a list of the magazines subscribed for: Popular Science
Monthly, Review of Reviews, Pedagos^ical Seminary, Forian, New York
J otirnal of Education, The Arena, Kindergarten Magazine, New Eng-
land fournal of Education, Century, and California Illustrated Maga-
zine.
The kindergarten exhibit was a pleasing feature of the flower show
FIELD NOTES. 42/
held in New York city this week. At last year's exhibition one thou-
sand seedlings were given to the little gardeners. A number of prizes
were offered for the plants that showed the best evidence of care and
attention. Three hundred of the plants were returned and placed on
exhibition. Some of them were in remarkably fine condition, and would
be a credit to professional florists. It was part of Froebel's plan that
the little ones of the kindergarten should learn to love flowers and take
care of them. Leaving out the prize offering, an annual exhibition of
plants grown by children would be something worth attempting in kin-
dergartens and primary schools. — Selected.
The following report comes from Youngstown, O.: There is here a
free association, a free kindergarten averaging fifty pupils, a free train-
ing class of four young ladies who practice in the free kindergarten and
one who assists in the private kindergarten, and a Froebel circle con-
sisting of members of the association. This is conducted by the director
of the private kindergarten and myself. The free association has been
given one thousand dollars, with which to open a trial creche this year.
If this proves to be a necessity, the same man who gave the money will
build a memorial building for creche and kindergarten. Two years ago
the free kindergarten work was unknown to most of the people. The
free association is not yet two years old. — A. M.
Mrs. Anna N. Kendall spent two weeks in. Sedalia, Mo., where she
organized a mothers' class, giving them a course of enthusiastic lec-
tures on child training, also several talks on "Art at the World's Fair."
She stopped over in St. Louis on her way, and was cordially received
by the kindergartners of that city, Miss Mabel Wilson accompanying
her to Sedalia. Mrs. Kendall is prepared to do active and personal
work in interesting mothers in the course and outlining studies in child
nature for home students.
The Sunshine Kindergarten of Dubuque, la., is located in a large
and attractive room, furnished by Mrs. F. Stout. Such personal pat-
ronage of the women of a community, who are interested in this work
because of conviction that it is a good and right effort, is always salu-
tary to the cause. Dubuque is a sufficiently important point to carry on
enlarged kindergarten work. The kindergartners there at present are
Miss Turner and Miss Raymond.
ToPEKA, Kan., has a kindergarten at Tennesseetown, which is the
first colored kindergarten school west of the Mississippi River, and its
work last year was successful beyond the expectation of its founders.
In connection with this school, and in the same room, a library and
reading room has been established which is open every evening for the
residents of Tennesseetown. The expense is paid by individual sub-
scriptions.
428 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Wellsville, N. Y., has a flourishing- kindergarten, in a large room
granted by the board of education free of charge, in the new school
building. As this work grows, and as the interest of the community
enlarges, need will come to organize into an association or receive the
kindergarten into the public school work. Miss Bertha Hanks, a grad-
uate of the Chicago Kindergarten College, is in charge of the school.
A COURSE of ten lectures on the spiritual interpretation of Goethe's
"Faust" will be given by Denton J. Snider at the Chicago Kindergar-
ten College, lo Van Buren street, on Tuesdays at 2.30 p. m., beginning
January g, 1894. These lectures are prefatory to the annual literary
school, which will be held at the college in Easter week. The leading
Goethean scholars of the country have been engaged for this school.
The Memphis Conference Female Institute at Jackson, Tenn., is
one of the few institutions of learning in that state that support a kin-
dergarten. Although this is the first year that such work has been con-
nected with the school, it has been a success from the beginning. The
children are making fine progress, and they receive the hearty coopera-
tion of their parents in this, the "new education."
The following is taken from the annual report of the superintendent
of public schools of Utica: "Among the matters educational in which
Utica may justly take pride is the fact that she has formally and defi-
nitely incorporated free public kindergartens into her educational sys-
tem. Beginning with one during the year 1891-2, three were sustained
during 1892-3, and five are started for 1893-4."
Superintendent A. W. Hussy, of the Warsaw (111.) public schools,
subscribed, for his entire third grade bevy of boys and girls, for the
Child-Garden, which, after having been used in the class, are sent
home with them for the children at home. He hopes to do as much for
the parents as for the children, by distributing this excellent literature.
Mr. George L. Schreiber is giving a course of art talks before
the Chicago Free Kindergarten Association and the students of Armour
Institute, on art as applied to the child, especially in the line of story
illustrating. Some of his lectures are promised the readers of the
Kindergarten Magazine in the coming numbers.
Professor Denton J. Snider, of the Chicago Kindergarten Col-
lege, is conducting a course of lectures on the Philosophy of Froebel's
" Mother-Play and Nursery Book." As a German student and philoso-
pher, Mr. Snider will no doubt rediscover much of purport to the stu-
dents of this book.
Professor Earl Barnes, of Stanford University, who is collect-
ing data for educational research, has sent out circulars asking parents
if their children tell lies, and if so, from what motive and how often.
FIELD NOTES. 429
The kindergarten department of the Buffalo Normal School shows
evidence of vital, strong work. The supplemental mothers' study class
is well attended, and expressions are numerous to show that an earnest
desire exists to know the heights and depths of the work.
The public schools of Lexington, Ky., were among the gold-med-
aled ones of the Exposition. Lexington has excellent public school
kindergartens, which made one of the best composite exhibits in the
educational department.
On November 7, a nephew of Friedrich Froebel, John Froebel, died
in Zurich, Switzerland, aged eighty-eight. He was author of " Seven
Years' Travel in America," "A System of Crystallography," and "A
System of Social Politics."
A KINDERGARTEN association has been recently organized in Savan-
nah, Ga., the "Forest City of the South," through the help of Mrs. O. A.
Weston.
Miss Fredrica Beard, of Chicago, takes charge of the kindergar-
ten department in the normal school at Norwich, Conn., in January, 1894.
Miss Anna L. Page, of Boston, visited the Chicago kindergartens
and training school in November, the guest of Mrs. Alice H. Putnam.
Beloit, Wis., pays for its kindergartens out of public school funds.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
There is just out a book called "Boston Collection of Kindergarten
Stories." It consists of fifty-nine stories and fables gathered by several
Boston kindergartners, and used by them in their daily work. Price 60
cents.
"Song Stories for the Kindergarten," by the Misses Hill, is out in
board covers, at $1. The highest words of praise are coming to us from
those who are using the songs, both for their adaptability and their ideal
qualities in word and music.
An edition of "Child Stories from the Masters," by Maude Menefee,
for $1, is in the market. These interpretative tales from the highest
sources are bound to take their place in the hands of thinking teachers
as an introduction into broader epic literature for the very youngest
child. Miss Menefee is making a careful study not only of the masters
but of the children, and possesses the natural qualities as a writer which
help her to bring these greatest thoughts to the tiniest thinkers.
"The Legend of St. Christopher," by Andrea Hofer, comes out in a
dainty booklet, retelling an old legend with its world-wide truth. The
unquestioning service of the good old saint, with its ultimate spiritual
reward, is pictured with suggestive force, showing how the crudest
labor is holy and bears fruit, though done with the simplest ideal, and
how serving others is serving God. The story may be used in connect-
ing the Christ-child lessons with the trade and labor thought used in
the winter months by many kindergartners. Kindergarten Literature
Co., price 25 cts.
Among books received are "String of Amber Beads," by Martha
Everets Holden, from the press of Chas. H. Kerr & Co.; "Stories from
Plato and other Classic Writers," by Mary E. Burt, author of " Literary
Landmarks." "A Brave Baby, and Other Stories," by Sara E. Wiltse,
is to be ready in January. Perhaps the greatest value of this book lies
in the stories based upon Norse mythology. Miss Wiltse having ap-
proached this ancient fountain in the spirit of the myth-loving mod-
ern child. Over the stories of courage, of moral growth, of scientific
and historical fact, plays that pure imagination which can be found
only in children, and those who live with them.
A VOLUME of essays containing the following papers, and called
"The Kindergarten," is edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin: "The Rela-
tion of the Kindergarten to Social Reform," by Mrs. Kate Douglas Wig-
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. 43 1
gin; "The Child and the Race," by Mrs. Mary H. Peabody; "Seed,
Flower, and Fruit of the Kindergarten," by Alice Wellington Rollins;
"A Plea for the Pure Kindergarten," by Jennie B, Merrill; "The Philos-
ophy of the Kindergarten," by Angeline Brooks; "An Explanation of
the Kindergarten, Intended for Mothers," by Alice A. Chadwick; "The
Kindergarten in the Mother's Work," by Mrs. Elizabeth Powell Bond;
and "Outgrowths of Kindergarten Training," by Mrs. A. B. Longstreet.
Price Si.
There is a charm about the North land which not only delights
boys and girls, but charms them. " The Surgeon Stories," as told by
the Finnish historian Topelius, are full of the romance as well as the
heroism of the Thirty Years' War. The series of six volumes is a
library in itself, and will delight and profit boys and girls from twelve
years up. The volumes cover the history of Charles XII, Linnaeus the
botanist, Gustav Adolph, and Peter the Great. The price of the entire
set is $4.50, and we recommend them heartily because of their sound
historic and literary value. The heroism of strong national characters
is a tonic for every normal boy and girl. Topelius is the Walter Scott
of Finland.
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
Bound Volumes. — Vols. IV and V, handsomely bound in fine silk
cloth, giving the full year's work in compact shape, each $3.
Send for our complete catalogue of choice kindergarten literature;
also give us lists of teachers and mothers who wish information con-
cernmg the best reading.
Always. — Subscriptions are stopped on expiration, the last number
being marked, "With this number your subscription expires," and a
return subscription blank inclosed.
Always. — Our readers who change their addresses should imme-
diately notify us of same and save the return of their mail to us. State
both the new and the old location. It saves time and trouble.
Always — Send your subscription made payable to the Kindergarten
Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago, 111., either by money order,
express order, postal note, or draft. (No foreign stamps received.)
There are only about one hundred copies of Vol. I of Child-Garden
to be had. They are now bound, and partially exhausted. We desire
to give our readers the first chance at purchasing them. Price $2.
^Child-Garden Samples. — Send in lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
Remember some child's birthday with a gift of Child-Garden, only $1
per year.
Portraits of Froebel. — Fine head of Froebel; also Washington, Lin-
coln, and Franklin; on fine boards, 6 cents each, or ten for 50 cents.
Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago.
(Size 6x8 inches.)
Many training schools are making engagements for next year's
special lectures through the Kindergarten Literature Co, We are in
correspondence with many excellent kindergarten specialists in color,
form, music, primary methods, literature, art, etc.
Wanted.— The following back numbers of Kindergarten Maga-
zine in exchange for any other number you want in Vols. II, III, I\^^, or
V, or for books: Vol. I, Nos. 1,3, 4, and 9; Vol. II, Nos. g, 10, and 13; Vol.
Ill, Nos. I, 5, 6, and 8. Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Chicago.
Foreign Subscriptions, — On all subscriptions outside of the States,
British Columbia, Canada, and Mexico, add forty cents (40 cents) for
postage, save in case of South Africa, outside of the postal union, which
ELIZABETH PALMER PEABODY.
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.— FEBRUARY, 1894.— No. 6.
THE KINDERGARTEN AS A PREPARATION FOR
RIGHT LIVING.
I.
FRAU HENRIETTA SCHRADER.
(Translated from the German.)
TO my mind it is a vital mistake to consider the
kindergarten, as is too frequently done, chiefly
as a preliminary step toward the school, ahd to
see its plan of work, its methods of occupation
and development merely as a preparation for primary in-
struction.
Too great importance has been put upon school training
in our time, which has been given a prominence far out of
proportion to that accredited to home training and to family
influence in public education, and this in spite of the unsat-
isfactory results so far attained. Indeed, generally speaking,
the whole character and modern development which the
kindergarten has taken in the present day seem to me to be
at variance with Froebel's fundamental conceptions of the
early training of children. However important Froebel
considered the school in the totality of its influence upon
the child, and striking as his utterances on the subject of
school organization and methods are, in his work entitled
"The Education of Man," he still gives the foremost place
in his educational theory and practice to the family thought,
as expressed in his book " Mutter und Kose-Lieder."
Here he enters the sacred realm of the family, and bends
every effort to the reinstating of home training, to the ele-
vating of womankind, upon which latter rests the possibility
436 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of the former. Read his " call," of 1840, urging all women,
and young women of Germany, to establish the kindergar-
ten, with all the branches which this includes.
In this matter of offering true culture to woman, thus
lifting her up into spiritual motherhood, of renewing family
life, and recognizing this as the only atmosphere for true
education, Froebel coincides fully with his great prede-
cessor, Pestalozzi, who has given us such treasures of
thought in this direction in his various writings.
Even before the appearance of " Mutter und Kose-
Lieder " and " Menschen Erziehung " we find Froebel utter-
ing strong statements, all pointing to family life and to the
importance of transferring this home atmosphere to public
education as the true goal of education.
In a short address to our German people in 1820 appears
the statement: " Education should not be sundered from
the home, and education as an art should draw ever nearer
and nearer to the family as a point from which to radiate."
Again in 1823 we read in his report of the Universal Edu-
cational Institute at Keilhau:
"The supreme model of all educational conditions should
be the perfected family. Our institute shall not crowd out
the home spirit. On the contrary, we are ever striving that
our pupils may become the nucleus of a true family in the
future, in which they may fulfill their highest obligations.
Therefore we are working to establish this true educational
institution; and when we succeed, we shall have destroyed
and dissolved the necessity for such a one."
To be sure, Froebel makes lofty demands upon true
family life, out of which alone he pledges to bring great
educational influences to the children. In 1826 he wrote
in his " Menschen Erziehung" that parents must consider
themselves as the guardians, protectors, and cultivators of
their God-given children. They must teach themselves to
answer some part of the great question of man's destiny
and chief purpose upon earth, and come to some conclu-
sions as to the best ways and means of approaching this
goal.
PREPARATIOX FOR RIGHT LIVING. 437
Another passage we read in this book just mentioned:
"The natural mother does much, prompted by her in-
stinct; but she now needs to bring her conscious influence
to bear upon another being just coming into consciousness."
Further on we read: "The members of a family must know
and understand what are the aims of true education and the
means to attain the same, and each must help to develop
the other's strength necessary to fulfill this end."
The ever-increasing experience of Froebel as he came in
contact with many families taught him that parents are far
from fulfilling these obligations; and in his deeply signifi-
cant paper dated 1836, called the " Renewing of Life," he
calls out, full of enthusiasm: "In the family environment
alone man's soul is perfected! and even then only in as far
as the family recognizes itself as a medium of love, light,
and spiritual life. The keynote for a higher plane of human
development can only be sounded when man is seen as one
member of an organized whole, a unity made up of many
members."
Once more Froebel deliberated, looking back over his
accumulated experience, and asking himself seriously this
question: "Can family life, the home environment, as it
now is, satisfy the high demands made upon it by our pres-
ent degree of culture, for the regeneration of human life, so
that humanity may reach a yet nobler plane of existence?"
Answering himself earnestly and conclusively, he said,
" No." He turned aside in 1836 from his previous efforts
in connection with schools and the training of boys; he was
intent upon discovering new ways in order to reach a more
certain and rational education. And then he came upon
his kindergarten idea. In a public call sent out in 1840 we
find that he by no means considered this merely as a scho-
lastic institution; but for the person who was to be the
motherly educator of young children he demanded a com-
plete equipment, fitting her for a many-sided, all-round
kind of life.
He demanded, for the true development of the child, a
union of practical skill with scientific knowledge. He
438 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
looked to the womanhood of Germany to found his ideal
institute, but they did not yet understand him. The essen-
tial means with which to establish a training school for the
guardians of children were not forthcoming, and he must
needs be satisfied to open the work along its several lines
rather than produce it at once as a complete organization.
One of these lines was the kindergarten and the training of
worthy kindergartners to be worthy assistants to the mother
as well as to be*prepareci to be the future mothers of their
own children; and in this way he determined little by little
to raise family life.
Out of the midst of this struggle, and with this ideal
conception in his mind, he produced " Mutter und Kose-
Lieder." Froebel says: "The family that would rise to the
requirements of modern social culture in the best sense,
must recognize itself to be a social unit inextricably inter-
woven by visible and invisible threads with the larger social
environment in the midst of which it is embedded {Glied-
Ga>i3cs)y This utterance of his has a peculiar significance
for us today, and his " Mutter und Kose-Lieder" is a con-
tinual enlargement upon and illustration of this theme.
The very labor which provides physical comforts for the
various members of the family, and which falls chiefly to
the hand of woman, is constantly bringing about right rela-
tionships. Even though the family circle be a limited one,
it is brought into contact with an ever-increasing, larger
circle, by force of natural and mutual needs. Although an
advancing material civilization has lessened the necessity
for the prosecution of these primitive industries that once
gave work to a large number of people in and around each
household, yet the modern family group is really more
dependent upon a wider circle of people who minister to its
needs and with whom it consequently stands in definite
relationships.
Family production as well as consumption weaves many
threads in and out between the various members and the
head of the house, and again between the house mother and
the great outer world. Formerly it was customary to think
PREPARATION FOR RIGHT LIVING. 439
of these relationships only from the standpoint of securing
advantage to the family, cheap labor for the home; close
marketing, even though this involved sacrifice or suffering
of others, was still recognized as a mark of good house-
wifery. In the case of the man's choice of occupation, the
important consideration was whether it would bring safe
provision; high wages were desirable, even though others
struggled and suffered because of his good fortune. In the
training of children the most conspicuous principle was to
preserve them from gross mistakes and trials, and it was
said: " Let them be cared for as far as their external needs
are concerned."
As a consequence, the ego of the individuals reached no
further than the ego of the family; and the latter entered
into no living, conscious interchange of give-and-take with
the other factors of society. The bias of social opinion
supported until lately this selfish isolation of family life
from the larger social environment, and there are many
families who remain untouched by outer social or political
relationships. A change has come, however, and Froebel
clearly foresaw the coming change. He recognized that
the ever-increasing conflicts between different classes of
society struggling on one side and the other could not be
remedied through external law; he saw that the inequalities
between man and man could only be lessened through spon-
taneous deeds of loving fellowship. Family education must
contribute to bring about this more social view of family
life, and this can only be done if parents recognize their
obligations and consciously strengthen those ties which link
each family to its social environment. It is a well-estab-
lished fact in nature that every organic structure, however
complex in its latest stage, has started from the smallest
organic beginning, the cell. This natural law of growth has
its counterpart in the social and ethical sphere. The family
contains in embryo within itself all the various after-ramifi-
cations of social and ethical activities on a larger scale.
The highest aim to which humanity aspires is no doubt of
an ethical nature; but as there is unity stamped upon man's
440 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
being, he never can realize his highest aspirations unless
they are supported by other faculties of his being, — by a
finely responsive gamut of feeling, by keen intelligence,
trained practical skill, and a disciplined will.
The training of the power of the will rests upon a grad-
ual exercise of the same, beginning with the youngest child
onward. It is this daily exercise of the moral will which
modern education has neglected. It is for this reason that
efforts along intellectual and industrial lines, however pro-
gressive, have failed to bring the joy and satisfaction which
they should, which they do bring when knowledge and abil-
ity to execute are joined hand in hand with man's ethical
inclinations.
This harmony in man's being can only be begun when a
small community of individuals comes in touch with the still
larger outer world, thus establishing the relationship of man
to man truly and rationally. We will suppose the individ-
uals within this smaller community to be ever striving to
adjust their relations to one another according to a high
standard of human intercourse, so that within this small
circle the characteristics of each individuality are cherished
and given scope, without overstepping the bounds which
limit his freedom by the rights of other individualities.
Self-development ought always to be coordinated with
an activity the result of which is consecrated to others.
Only in this way can we preserve in the young any room
for the interest of others. Even a little child may begin
early to harmonize such warring factors as self-assertion
and self-yielding; but this art must be first practiced in a
pure home circle or else in an educational environment in
which the family spirit prevails.
( To be continued.)
WILLIAM L. TOMLINS ON CHILDREN AND
MUSIC.
THE following excerpts from an article written by
Wm. L. Tomlins, upon his work with the children
of the "World's Fair Chorus," will be of great in-
terest to many of our readers who have intelli-
gently watched the progress of this work. Twelve hundred
children were taken from the public schools of Chicago,
and, given one lesson a week, attained in less than two years
such wonderful results as were heard by thousands of
World's Fair visitors.
In this resume we are happy to place before our readers
something of the ideals and conditions, also a touch of the
philosophy, of this great work, the broad humanitarianism
and undoubted educational influence of which is arousing
enthusiastic comment on both sides of the water.
The peculiar art flavor of Mr. Tomlins' plan appeals par-
ticularly to those who are working with children. Ap-
proaching the subject of child development from the ideal
or art side, he touches directly upon the deep things of life,
and stands side by side with Froebel in foreshadowing the
wonders of intuitional education.
As an immediate result of the demonstrations made dur-
ing the World's Fair season, a demand has arisen for teach-
ers and workers in this special field, and after the same
rational and progressive pattern. Teachers' study classes
are being arranged to meet this demand, and lectures and
organizing talks can be provided every community awak-
ened to the practical and potent influence of this work. We
quote from Mr. Tomlins:
"What a boy does, his actions, are manifested at his cir-
cumference. Inside this outer circle is an inner circle which
stands for his mentality, — what he reasons, calculates, con-
442 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
trives, perhaps schemes. Inside this inner circle, at the
very center, is what he is. What he is, his affections are;
for what he longs for, that already he is at heart. How to
reach these inner tendencies, direct them outward, and har-
monize them with his environment, is the object of all true
education.
"The public school education is directed chiefly at the
boy's mentality. It reaches his center (what he is) only
incidentally; and it reaches his outer circle (what he does)
only incidentally. The manual training schools do much
good, in that they take the boy's thoughts and channel
them outward to the light. What he has learned to know
he is taught to utilize in useful occupation.
"The step yet to be taken is to get at the boy himself,
the boy's heart; and this, whether he be good or bad, will
not be done by recalling his attention to himself, — by mak-
ing him self-conscious. And on Sunday to tell him to be
good is at most to weaken him to goody-goodiness, with
quite a chance of making him a little hypocrite. To be
good he must do good; must be useful, contributing service
that makes for the happiness and welfare of others. And
this makes for his own well-being also; as for example: our
daily food is in turn changed into blood, muscle, sweat, out
of which is born natural appetite, rightfully claiming more
food; a healthful process, and 'with holiness of use' that
which is true of the body and the mind is equally true of
the spirit.
"Deep down, beyond the far-reaching influences of the
schools, deeper than what he does or thinks, at the very
heart and soul of the boy, are latent tendencies for good or
evil, of which even he himself is ignorant. There music
alone will reach, — music, the voice of love; heaven-born,
God-given. It searches out the flower germs of the soul,
awakening them to response, stimulating them to a large-
ness of growth which leaves no place for weeds. But the
song must go deep down to the singer's nature, until the
throbbing beats of the music awaken corresponding heart
impulses; and these must be equalized, strengthened, and at
\VM. L. TOMLINS ON CHILDREN AND MUSIC. 443
last freighted with the spirit of good-will, helpfulness, and
every noble aspiration. In this way music appeals to the
singer, as his singing appeals to others. And with greater
power there comes a heavier responsibility, — to carry the
melody forward in harmonious living, a life lived for others.
" A thing incomplete, broken, is concerned about itself.
In the case of a sick man we find that one part of his phys-
ical system will not work. Some of the other parts try to
supply the deficiency, the result being disorder and friction.
Meanwhile self-consciousness in the form of pain comes to
him. This thought extends to inanimate nature. We can
imagine a broken wheel concerned only about its own
mending; and a whole wheel impatient to revolve.
" Strike a bell into complete vibration, and immediately
it voices itself in bell tones to the world. Similarly the
gong says, ' I am a gong.' But fracture the bell and muffle
the outer rim of the gong; in other words, reduce their cir-
cles of vibration to incompleteness, and immediately the
tone of each is degraded to the dull click of a piece of old
iron. The voice of individuality instantly degenerates into
that of commonalty. The completeness of individuality
makes for power; to its possessor power, in a sense of
grasp; and to others, to whom it goes as a personal pres-
ence, that intangible something which apart from action
and speech impresses those about one.
"A lover of nature taken to a mountain summit and
there shown a magnificent landscape at sunrise, is moved
from center to circumference. In his response to the beauty
before his eyes he is awakened perhaps to some of the
greatness of his own nature. The circle of individuality
complete, he feels within him the promise of a still higher
circle, which makes for nobility; and he is ready to put
cheap ambitions from him and go out into action to win the
spurs of knighthood. But to do what? To do for self? to
take care of 'number one'? Why, it is this that brings us
down to 'commonplace.' No; to do, certainly, but to do
for others. Thus it appears that manhood leads to brother-
444 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
hood, and that by working for my brother, and more than
that, by sacrificing myself for him, I can broaden and
strengthen my own nature.
"In the earlier stages of vocal training, the machinery of
the voice is unruly and unmanageable. The child tries to
sing with expression, but only gets its outward form; he
attempts emotional singing, but the emotion is confused;
they will not associate with crippled machinery. Later on,
when all his physical parts unite in harmonious action, the
tones become vital. Soon this vital utterance is shaped by
the emotions which are waiting to express themselves. The
voice goes out in command; it entreats; it joys; it sorrows.
Thus an emotion becomes a governing center of the outer
circle of physical voice. The center expresses itself at the
circumference.
"We are told that no two blades of grass are alike; we
may be certain that no two boys are alike. No one boy is
exactly duplicated in this world. Reduced to a vulgar
fraction of himself (like the fractured bell or the muffled
gong) he can hardly be distinguished from other boys in
the same condition. Hence the term 'commonplace.' But
in reality the boy is unique. He stands alone. If singing
brings the boy to realize his own personality and he re-
sponds in earnest endeavor, at every step he is helped from
the next step above; for hidden within him are all the
possibilities of his nature. The first thing is to get him to
realize this fact; the next, inspire him to demonstrate it.
The first is something which in a very short while singing
may do for him. The latter he must do for himself; the
path is that of use, service, sacrifice, the Christ spirit. At
best it is a lifelong task. It is, however, wisely and lov-
ingly ordered that at every step in the path of progress
there are compensations, wider influences without, content-
ment within, the 'blessedness' of giving.
"It matters little whether the voice attains great ailistic
excellence. We may not all be Pattis or Nilssons; but we
may be ourselves. And this is the most important of all,
WM. L. TOMLINS ON CHILDREN AND MUSIC. 445
for thereby we become individual, noble, spiritual; on and
on, godly.
"Three years ago I organized a children's chorus for the
World's Fair, charging a small tuition fee to cover expenses.
About six hundred joined, not half the required number.
For the remainder I applied to Mr. Higginbotham, who
persuaded some other gentlemen to unite with him in sus-
taining the expenses. This enabled me to offer seven hun-
dred and fifty free scholarships. With the consent of the
board of education I went to school teachers, and we formed
three classes of two hundred pupils each, selecting those to
whom the lessons were the greatest kindness. In more
than one respect, indeed, most of these children were needy.
They represented not only flowers, but weeds — a tangled
mass. This was emphasized by the conditions; they
thought that something connected with the World's Fair
was being given away, for which they were eager to
scramble.
"The chief characteristic of these children, which im-
pressed my teachers and myself, in our earlier association
with them, was their mistrust. This was hard for us to
believe. They were respectful, responsive, obedient; but
there was always something held back. At first they were
not sure of their teachers; and they, as it were, held on to
themselves, remaining watchful, a little on the defensive.
But very soon they were not so sure of themselves, the
exercises beginning to affect them. These exercises, in
which they seemingly indulged in a playful manner, loos-
ened their hold on themselves, and, like a boy learning to
swim in deep water, they were only too glad to hold on to
their teachers. Even the larger boys, many of whom came
to the class to an extent willful and stubborn, affecting the
assertion of manhood, and scorning softening emotions as
girlish, found the ground taken from under them by their
indulgence in the earlier class work, laughingly given in
what they thought pure fun and fooling; namely, —
"Softening the lips;
446 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
"Concentrating the eyes;
"Relaxing the jaws;
"Wringing the hands and arms;
"Deep breathing through the nostrils;
"Standing well forward, instead of on the heels;
"In other words, weeding away physical effects of stub-
bornness, over-assertion, indifference, stolidity, fussiness,
flightiness, etc. These are but various forms of self-con-
sciousness, and the expert teacher knows where to look for
them and how to correct them. Now the boy is ready to
begin to make music for himself. Previous to this, the
jingle has done the work, — tunes which a banjo or hand
organ could adequately produce, those which appeal to the
boy's heels. By degrees this jingle is taken away from him,
till at last he has only one note to sing, and not even a
word, not even a syllable, perhaps only one vowel. The
rest he must supply himself, and at last he does so. Then
the music becomes his making. His voice freed from its
weed imperfections, so small that it will hardly stand alone,
yet has a blending quality, and it unites with the other
voices, and they with it, and with each other. Every child
feels the thrill of his own voice. Nay, more; instead of
being lost in the general class voice, each singer claims the
general class as his own,
"The power of his own voice comes as a revelation to
the child. Like the man on the summit of the mountain, he
feels some of the greatness of his own nature, and like the
complete bell, he has to ring out to voice himself to the
world. With his teacher he is at once in fellowship, and
eager for progress, growth: he looks only for guidance.
His ideals, too, are enlarged. He can better understand a
Being who is all love and all power, who gives to all, who
helps everyone. Already the child has been obedient to
the instructions of his teachers, as to cleanliness, tidiness,
and punctuality; but now come laws from within, making
for self-restraint; then soon is developed self-reliance, self-
respect, and a kind of self-responsibility. All this makes
for growth, widening his sphere of usefulness, strengthening
WM. L. TOMLINS ON CHILDREN AND MUSIC. 447
him to new duties in his school, his home, and in all his
associations in the outside world.
"During this time a new world is opening out to him,
— the world of art, where live forever Handel, Bach, Beetho-
ven, Mendelssohn, and all the great composers who have
voiced themselves in imperishable song. These are our
common heritage. Many of them are suited to the child
voice, and we sing them over and over again, never tiring
of them.
"This, then, is the object of our work: to purify the
child nature, so that his voice is as sweet as he is sweet;
to ennoble him by contact with the highest in thought and
feeling that brain and thought can produce; to have him
know that his fellow is his brother, and that God is his
Father, and then to send him a missionary to his own home.
This is the use to which we put music, and measurably we
accomplish our purpose."
EARLY EDUCATION THROUGH SYMBOLS.
MARION FOSTER WASHBURNE.
RUSKIN propounds the question as to the cause of
the low moral plane of those nations of the East
which produced the best art, as the East Indians;
and he replies that it is because these people
have forsaken their nature-model, and have undertaken to
invent beauty for themselves. They succeed, but they are
debased by their success. Take an Indian rug, for example.
There is upon it the most wonderful combination of subtle
hues and graceful lines, but not a picture nor a hint in it of
any living thing. It is beautiful, for the laws of color and
form have been perfectly apprehended and perfectly ap-
plied. But its maker — what of him? He has learned this
lesson and stopped. There is no more of growth in him.
He is applying his knowledge of these two things over
and over, in varying combinations, learning nothing new,
not studying the way the Artist of the World has applied
them, but content with his own skill.
We are in a somewhat similar predicament. We have
discovered many laws of the vast system of symbolism
called language, and we delight ourselves in applying them
in ever new combinations. We have turned our faces too
much away from the speaking face of the earth. The
earth! that book wherein are writ the secrets of the Most
High; that book full of beauty, full of health, full of de-
lights, wherein the Father rejoiceth to write, — and we,
like petulant children, choose not to read.
No, not like children! When we were children we loved
to read therein; and oh, how we grew! To which of us
comes now, in maturity's hour, the rush of blinding light
and joy that used to burst at times upon our dreaming and
watching childhood? We find truths now in our books.
EARLY EDUCATION THROUGH SYMBOLS. 449
and thrill, but not as we thrilled then. We study botany in
our books, and go out and analyze, that we may remember
better, and be able to recite or to quote; but how many of
us know how to lose ourselves, like Whitcomb Riley, "Knee-
deep in June"? We listen to the bird notes, — sometimes,
when we have no book, — and those of us who are scientific
analyze them, and portion them off to their appropriate
owners; but who of us lies still and lets them sing to his
soul, — lets them tell their message? We seem to take it
for granted, practically, that different birds sing different
songs in order to aid us in our classification; but when we
have classified, when we know the colors of their primaries,
and secondaries, and tertiaries, what then? What is the
bird to us still, but a chance to be pedantic, a piece of goods
on which we embroider, like the East Indian rug maker, our
bits of knowledge, and worship, not the Lord who made
the bird, but our own knowledge? There is a way of ana-
lyzing, which is in a sense worshipful. That is the spirit of
the true scientist — and we are not many of us that — who
says he worships the Maker in worshiping his works. This
is often true, and to such a humble and truth-seeking spirit
all right minds must accord honor. But the curse of our
civilization today, or one of its curses, is the acquiring of
knowledge for the sake of culture, — that is, to be honest, for
the sake of show.
There is a way of looking at nature which is higher than
the scientist's way, in some respects: that is the way of the
philosopher. His is the same truth-seeking spirit dealing
with generals instead of particulars. He does not worship,
except as worship is contained in the asking of why. The
answer to the why continually leads him to sublime reason-
ing, which dazzles him into the belief that they are all
there is of the world. He is so enamored of his telescope
that he often ignores the scientist's microscope. "What!"
says he, in effect, "shall I look at crawling worms and
cholera germs, when I can view the eternal principles of
being in their order and relation?"
But there is a third way of looking at the world, — the
450 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
way of the poet and the artist. They see both the worm
and the star. To them little and big are alike of use, for to
them the world is meanijig-fidl. It is not only perfectly
planned, and lawful, as to the scientist; it is not only rea-
sonable, and transparent to thought, as to the philosopher;
but it is alive! It appeals to every faculty. There is food
in it for investigation, for reflection, for delight, for unend-
ing and varied growth. And it is this by virtue of its sym-
bolism, using that word in its highest sense. It is not in
the sense of that which was made to contain a meaning, as
blue was always painted for the Virgin's robe as a symbol
of truth, as red always meant life, and so on; but as that
which does, by its very nature, contain a meaning which
exists by virtue of it. This is philosophy; but its meaning
is more than philosophic, for it appeals to more than the
reason; it sublimates the very senses, quickens the very
heart of him who perceives it. It flows naturally into his
life and culminates inevitably in worship.
For there is this parallelism between this world and the
world of spirit, which parallelism is called symbolism. It
lies plain to the eyes of our childhood, and plainer to the
eyes of our maturity, than we are willing to acknowledge.
Who knows the meaning of height? not the reason of it,
but the meaningf Sublime, exalted, uplifted, lofty, high-
minded; these words all convey a definite meaning to us;
and for what better reason than that they carry us in imag-
ination to the mountains that have whispered their meaning
to our souls? "He dwells upon the heights," we continu-
ally say of a great soul. Take that word I have just used,
— "great"; is its meaning simply bigness, — physical, lumpy,
heavy bigness? "Great-hearted!" What a rush of heaven's
meaning through the words! We do know, though we fail
to acknowledge it, of what the size of all things is the sym-
bol. Heat and cold, too, how we use them, — a warm color,
a heated argument, hot temper, warm good-will, warm-
hearted, cold-blooded, freezing manner, chilling reserve;
we all know very well what degrees of heat and cold mean.
Light, too, — brilliant speech, scintillating wit, eyes spark-
EARLY EDUCATION THROUGH SYMBOLS. 45 1
ling with the light of earnestness, to throw light on an ob-
scured question; or its opposite, darkness, — the blackness
of despair, the gloom of grief, the shadow of death; we all
know v^ery well what light means, though we fail to own it.
Let us own it! Let us open our eyes and our hearts to
the world about us. Let it speak to us. That is all; let \t.
We are a study-destroyed generation. We have looked at
books till our eyes know no color but black and white. We
have used w^ords till we know not the universal language of
creation, — that language which alone is eternal, and which
alone can give us eternal truths and eternal delights.
Think of it! We have come to ignore delights in our
scheme of education, — all except Friedrich Froebel, God
bless him! — and we take it as a matter of course that knowl-
edge-seeking should be dull work, and knowledge when
gotten should be productive of little joy beyond the igno-
ble joy of possession.
We have today a greed of the intellect, which will bring
upon us some day our sure Circe. Knowledge was meant
to be to the mind the same satisfactory thing that food is to
the body. When the body is indifferent to food we know
that it has somehow been badly fed; w^hen it has an abnor-
mal appetite, we diagnose the same trouble. The parallel
holds good. The intellectually indifferent man and the
man who despises all things not intellectual, have alike
been badly fed, and both have mental dyspepsia.
The trouble is, the food has been all of one kind. Vari-
ety of food, say our best dietitians, is necessary to proper
development. It certainly is necessary for enjoyment.
Would we know how to give to ourselves, to those whom
we teach, this needful and delightful variety? Let us fol-
low our natural bent toward symbolism. Let us not think
and study all the time, but listen and dream!
Swedenborg, in order to illustrate the relation of God to
this world, to His creation, continually uses the sun as His
symbol. If we think of the sun, with this meaning behind
it, it will lead our spirit, as it does our bodies, straight from
darkness into light. No, not straight, but through the gray
452 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
dawn of thought, and the rose-tints and purples of poetic
imagery, to the clear daylight of perfect truth. It is the
appointed way. Symbols are the outward recognition and
use of the inner content of things, the means by which we
make the physical world minister, not alone to our physical
needs, but also to our spiritual.
To him who studies the sun as a scientist, come hours of
peering through lenses, of calculating on paper, of memo-
rizing, and headaches, and sleepless nights; and as a fruit
of it all, a burdensome sense of incomprehensible sun-spots,
and the infinite reach of unknown territory.
To him who reasons on the sun — the philosopher —
comes a lofty vision of the power of the Creator; but to
him who takes the sun into his heart, who lives in its rays
and considers its meaning, come life and strength and
spiritual knowledge. He knows it as the scientist knows it,
only every fact has for him a double meaning: that upon its
face, unsatisfactory; that hidden, an unending delight. He
may know as the scientist knows, may reason as the philos-
opher reasons, and live as the poet, — in God's own life.
For this language of symbolism is a universal language.
It comes straight from the heart of God to the heart of the
human race. It needs no interpreter. According to our
measure of understanding do we receive it; but all that we
receive is live knowledge, working, as live knowledge al-
ways will, to enlarge the boundaries of that which contains
it, to create a thirst for more, to give new insight. When
the world has once begun to speak to us face to face, when
mountain peaks and boundless prairie, when sky and cloud
take us into their confidence, we will care to lean less upon
books, although real books will mean more to us. It is
only as a book appeals to our own experience that it has
any vital power whatever. When we have gone partly
along the same path as our author, he can perhaps take us
by the hand and lead us a few steps further on. But if we
are not on the same road with him, and only dimly discern
him through the trees from our different paths, and have
his name and title whispered to us, let us beware how we
EARLY EDUCATION THROUGH SYMBOLS. 453
claim acquaintance with him. He will repudiate us and
show us not one word of truth.
This is just the danger to which we expose our children
when we put books in their hands too early, when we teach
them to read before they have learned to look, to listen,
and to feel. There is the greatest danger that the letter
will destroy the spirit and render it utterly dead.
And what is the letter that we should exchange for it
the living, throbbing spirit, whose servant it should be? It
is indeed selling our birthright for a mess of pottage!
The child is the heir of eternity. The atmosphere which
he breathes into his lungs, to be health-giving must be
mixed of air from the poles to the tropics. If he breathes
the stagnant air of one room, by and by he dies. So, too,
his knowing faculties must be fed with universal truths,
mixed of the far and the near, the lofty and the immediate.
Today we are too apt to feed him upon the immediate only,
and by and by his power of knowing — truly, vitally know-
ing— shrivels and dies. How rare is the man today whose
thinking is alive, is in intimate connection with his life and
ours, and in no less intimate connection with the life of the
Most High!
When we were born into the world this heritage of vital
thinking was ours. Our fresh minds saw all things in rela-
tionship, full of meaning, ready for use; and if our teaching
had been broad enough, deep enough, and high enough to
supply all our capacities, we should still see things truly^
understand their significance, and be able rightly to employ
them.
As it is, our minds have been so forced into routine
work, so compelled to memorize without reasoning, to ac-
cept facts presented arbitrarily and without explanation,
that we have lost much of our early sympathy with the
poetry, the spiritual life of the world of nature, and the
faculties which performed this high function for us have
shrunk and atrophied from disuse, and threaten mischief.
What shall we do to avoid this danger for our little
ones? Give them nothing less than the world for a play-
454 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
room, for a school! Speak to them, not in the cramped and
artificial tongue to which our limited thoughts have become
accustomed, but in that universal language — the language
of symbolism — which is so supremely flexible, satisfying,
and enticing. Let them live close to nature, and feel her
and question her. Let us not interfere too much, lest we
mar her work. Let them go to the art galleries, and live
with good pictures and good statuary. Let them hear good
music — not take m.usic lessons, but listen, little bits at a
time, as long as pleasure lasts; and, finally, tell them over
and over the good old meaning-full fairy tales and legends,
and the myths which express the childish reach after great
truths. For the universal mind of the child, his threefold
being, created in the image of Him who chose this world of
form and color and sound as His mouthpiece, can be satis-
fied with nothing short of universal truths couched in uni-
versal language. Having given him this sure center, all
other knowledge will group and arrange itself as it is ac-
quired, and the world will never be to him anything less
than a living witness to the majesty and tenderness of its
Creator.
"?r^ "^Y^"^^ y^ ^^ '7r^ /r^ A^ /fy^
THE TOLEDO MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL.
MARY E. LAW.
IN one of the most desirable portions of Toledo, on a
slight elevation or knoll, stands the High School and
Manual Training School. It is an imposing structure,
and a source of pride to its citizens; not so much for
its outward aspect, which is plain and substantial, but be-
cause it represents the practical realization of the most ad-
vanced ideas of modern education.
The high school proper was erected in 1853, and its first
graduating class sent many of its brightest members to the
battle field. It has always maintained a high standard of
scholarship.
The manual training school, under the joint control of a
board of trustees and the board of education, was made
possible through the generous bequest of Jessup W. Scott,
an early resident of Toledo, a man of culture and of broad
views of life, who wished to elevate labor and give to the
young people of his city a more symmetrical development
than was possible under the old ideas which dominated
education. His aim was to endow a university of arts and
trades, and he bequeathed, by will, a large tract of land ad-
jacent to Toledo for that purpose.
Owing to adverse circumstances, it was found that the
original plan could not be carried out, and in 1884 the trus-
tees— his sons, Messrs. Frank and Wm. Scott — proposed
to the city council of Toledo that the fund, which had been
increased by liberal amounts from his heirs and Wm. P.
Raymond, be used to establish a manual training school
in connection with the high school, thus broadening the
scope of the benevolence and carrying out the real desire
of the founder.
The manual training school thus became an integral part
of our public school system, and in its completeness and
456 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
peculiar relation to the high school is a model of its kind.
Every pupil of the manual training school must take the
regular high school course, but the manual training is an
elective course to the high school pupils. The large num-
ber who take both courses indicates its popularity.
The course requires a four years' attendance, which en-
titles pupils to a diploma, and prepares them for teaching
in similar institutions.
On the first floor, upon entering, to the left is the forg-
ing room, where young bo}'s learn all the mysteries of
blacksmithing, forging, welding, etc. To the right is the
molding shop. The intelligent young boys, with their
leather aprons and smutty faces, are an interesting sight.
On the next floor, to the left, is the light carpentry
room, where you may find both boys and girls learning to
use the hammer and saw, and construct plain boxes, tables,
etc. To the right is the machine shop, and more than one
class of boys have constructed a steam engine as a chef
d'ceuvre.
On the next floor, to the left, is the wood-carving room,
where both boys and girls express their artistic instinct
in carving wooden panels and other articles of furniture.
They prepared for the World's Fair a handsome hall rack,
writing desk, music rack, etc. To the right is the drawing-
room, where a most comprehensive system of drawing is
carried on under the supervision of Professor Percy Howe.
It comprises a four years' course, embracing free-hand, me-
chanical, architectural, pen and ink sketches, water colors,
etc.
On the upper floor are the two most attractive depart-
ments in the whole building, — the dressmaking and cook-
ing schools. The domestic economy course, for girls, com-
prises one year wood carving and carpentry, one year plain
sewing, one for dressmaking, and one for cooking.
The cooking school occupies a beautiful, well-lighted
room containing six tables accommodating four girls each.
Each girl has a set of drawers containing her cooking uten-
sils, which must be kept in perfect order. Each table is
TOLEDO MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL. 457
furnished with two small gas stoves. There are in addition
a large range and two large gas stoves for cooking and
boiling on a large scale. Each girl spends an hour and a
half each day in this department, which is under the super-
vision of Miss Matilda Campbell, a graduate of the school.
The course embraces five main divisions, — boiling, baking,
broiling, frying, mixing; or, soups, vegetables, meats, bread
and pastry, desserts, etc. Young women are taught to pre-
pare and serve breakfast, dinner, and tea. Two classes in
the ward schools take cooking lessons.
The dressmaking department, under the supervision of
Miss Nellie Fickens, is a most interesting department.
The plain sewing, which occupies the first year's course,
consists of preliminary work in basting, seaming, hemming,
felling, buttonholes, darning, and patching. The finished
work consists of one hand-made suit of ladies' underwear,
and is simple and neat in construction. A more elaborate
suit is one stitched by machine, and is of the daintiest
description, being fashioned of the finest cambric, with
decoration of fine tucks and Valenciennes insertion and
edging.
A morning jacket of blue and white eider down, lined
with blue silk and finished with blue silk frills, is a thing
of beauty. A white mull dress trimmed with ruffles and
lace is exquisitely made. A handsome walking suit of a
beautiful shade of green cloth, trimmed with velvet bands
and double shoulder capes of the same, was most artistically
conceived and executed.
But what young ladies would call a "perfect dream," is
the evening dress of pink crystal silk, designed by Miss Lulu
Heston, and finished in the most exquisite manner by Miss
Olive Parmelee. It is an Empire gown, decollete, with
short puffed sleeves, a Watteau plait in the back, and an
arrangement of pink velvet bridles from front to back
under the arms. It has two flounces of white lace on the
skirt, headed by bands of pink velvet, and the same garni-
ture on neck and sleeves. It is daintily lined with pink
silk throughout, and no seams are to be seen. Other young
458 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ladies make or design mulls, silks, ginghams, or challies, as
fancy may dictate.
There is no tuition fee in any of the courses, but a small
fee for material is charged, which includes the expenses of
linings, thread, etc., a complete suit of underwear, and one
dress. Nine special teachers give sewing lessons once a
week in the ward schools, after the regular school hours, and
twenty-two hundred young girls are in the classes at the
present time. Miss Olive Parmelee is the superintendent of
this department, assisted by ten graduates of the manual
training school.
Evening classes in cooking, drawing, chemistry, and
physics add greatly to the popularity of the institution.
Mr. Geo. S. Mills is the general superintendent.
The only thing necessary to place Toledo in the front
rank of cities as regards educational matters is the incor-
poration of the kindergarten into the public school system,
which is a possibility of the near future.
/fv /ps /fs /|V /^ /|s; /^ ■^jy\ /f^
V^ V^ V^ V^ W- W^ V^ ^ V^
EDITORIAL NOTES.
Portentous changes are going on in the various depart-
ments of society, economics, and ethics. One may hear a
rustle and murmur among the leaves and sheaves of the
season that is passing. A clearing breeze is already arising,
preparing the atmosphere for new policies, for higher ener-
gies and nobler aspirations. Every transitory stage from
an outgrown to a better condition is clothed in the mystery
of the untried. Whether in the history which has been
made, or in that which is being made, we find premonitions
of progress in which the waiting men and women have faith.
It is their own unspoken, half-conscious aspirations which
conjure every new achievement into life and reality.
The noble movement of the social, educational, and in-
dustrial settlements, which is unfolding the dignity and
beauty of human contact in every locality, is one of the
tangible signs of the latter day. The more fortunate no
longer go to the less fortunate that they may give of their
bounty or culture or talent; but the former go in that larger
spirit of comradeship which profits all concerned. The de-
mand on all sides is for more rational living and being, and
less for theories or fine dissertations on how men should
live. The church, the school, the state are falling in line
and responding to this demand. No small witness to this
is the fact that the American Bar Association is seriously
considering ways and methods by which the standard of
law study and learning may be raised to a scientific life basis.
A POWERFUL chemicalization is going on in the public
school systems of several of our largest cities. It is advis-
able for teachers to keep themselves posted on these im-
portant discussions, for the same reasons that a lawyer
watches the precedents and decisions fixed by every great
law case. The Brooklyn city schools, under Superintendent
Maxwell, are brought face to face with an important issue.
460 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
— viz., Shall there be complete coordination of studies, or
shall individual freedom be granted teachers in the selec-
tion of what is most profitable and advantageous to stu-
dents? Chicago has had her "fad" fight, which, once diag-
nosed as the action of political virus, has opened the eyes
of citizens to the relation of school boards to schools. But
by far the most important of these struggles for the survival
of the fittest and best for our schools, is that which is this
moment agitating Boston school men and women. The
pride of her schools, which twenty years ago were the pride
of the land, has rather blinded the colonial city by the sea.
Year by year, while she has looked out over what she had
already accomplished, other cities, other wheres, were meet-
ing and solving the current problems. It is not enough that
a public school system provide good shelter, retain reliable
teachers, and place eminent men and women upon the
school committee; but this system must also take into ac-
count the unceasing shift and growth of human thought, as
one generation merges into the next.
The publication of certain reports made by the special
committee on drawing in the Boston public schools, re-
vealed conditions which surprised both the public and the
school committee responsible for the same. Among the
unwarranted points which have called forth public and press
discussion are the following:
Disagreement among the members of the committee as
to the importance of drawing in the schools;
Unprogressive methods employed and tolerated;
Indifference and ignorance on the part of the special
drawing committee, to both standards of other cities and
the actual needs of the children;
Blind acceptance by the committee, of the scheme of
work submitted by the director of drawing, and regulated
by the system of text-books and charts provided by the
American Book Company;
That there was no vital connection between the kinder-
garten and primary or grade work, in spite of the fact that
the former have been considered an integral part of the
EDITORIAL NOTES. 461
Boston school system for twenty years; also that while
manual training is so successfully maintained, there is no
intermingling of this work with the drawing or art of the
schools.
The minority report presented by Dr. James McDonald
of the school committee was based upon a thorough investi-
gation of the work of other cities and the principles which
underlie the success of the same. This minority report not
only recommended but insisted that the kindergarten should
be made the basis of sound art work in the schools, since it
had been proven worthy and fruitful in so many cases.
The discussion has brought out evidence and testimony
of the most vital nature from such praictical educational
leaders as the following: Virgil Curtis, superintendent of
schools of New Haven; Walter L. Hervey, president Teach-
ers' College, New York; Dr. Edward E. Hale; Mr. Louis
Prang; Professor Walter S. Perry, of Pratt Institute; Dr.
McAllister, of Drexel, and a score more of equal authority.
In our next issue we will reprint a group of these letters,
which bear with direct force upon art in the kindergarten
and in primary education.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's "MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. VI.
The Cliild and his Environmerit. — " Grass Moivmg,'' "■Beck-
oning to the Chickens'' ''The Fishes!' — The naturalist is not
content with the random information that a certain rare
form of plant life was once found on a certain heath. He
searches out the facts; himself goes to the spot indicated,
that he may behold the choice creature as it grows and
blows in its native place. He takes account of rains, dews,
suns, and winds; whether it stands in free meadow or 'neath
a tall tree's shade. In studying a bird, he follows it to its
haunts; he watches its flight far and near, its nestings high
or low; he records the varied plumage, listens to its song,
both morning and evening.
In like careful and unintruding manner, the student of
the child beholds him in his natural setting. He too be-
longs to an environment peculiar to himself. This environ-
ment includes his daily surroundings, habits, selections, ac-
tivities, and endless questionings. His unconscious plays
and unnumbered experiments, his renewed efforts and striv-
ings and wishings, must all be taken into account by the
naturalist who would know his nature.
The choice plant newly discovered by the botanist may
have budded, blown, and seeded in the remote forest for
half a century before his eye chanced upon it. It has its
history. It might tell of forest floods which submerged it,
or mighty winds which have swept it, or night frosts which
chill it; another denizen of the woods once trod it under
foot; one holy spring season birds were busy hiding a nest
near its roots, and the balminess of evening breezes taught
it to move its tender branches in inexpressible joy. But the
botanist cares not for these varied chapters in its life's his-
tory. He knows what he sees, — namely, a perfect flower,
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 463
with transparent but well-ordered petals, stamens, and or-
gans. He sees that it has laws of color and organic form
peculiar to itself, and that these laws are destined to fulfill-
ment as often as the season repeats itself; for he finds here
what he has found again and again, — the seed within itself.
The mother or kindergartner has a group of varying
children about her. She has a family of five or fifty speci-
mens of humanity, which it is her duty and privilege to
study carefully. She must know them in their environment,
immediate and remote; she must come near to them without
intrusion or interference. The children represent many
stages of so-called development. She must learn to dis-
tinguish between temporary and permanent qualities. She
must reach behind every abnormal or artificial condition,
and find the child true to his laws of growth and in his na-
tive elefnent. Hereditary conditions must not blind, not dis-
courage her faith in the inevitable laws of individuality.
The strange histories, stories often too sad to bear repeat-
ing, must all be left behind as she seizes upon the fact that
here is a child with a law peculiar to himself, which will
come to fulfillment as it does in every other plant, because
its seed is within itself.
The naturalist who studies the child is more than a
physiologist or an anatomist. He must weigh and estimate
such immeasurable quantities as intuition, genius, and soul.
Kindergartners have been ridiculed for a score of years for
their free and oft but half-understood use of the phrase
"threefold relationship." They have been seeking to ex-
press Froebel's inclusive principle of unity.
As I understand Froebel's " Mother-Play Book," this is
its purpose: to present to us the child in his native, normal
condition, that we may study him relative to all the phe-
nomena of his existence. The purpose of this book is to
teach us to look behind the immediate and temporal condi-
tions, and find those fundamental facts from which we may
formulate laws common to all humanity. The purpose of
this book is to teach us to interpret children on whatever
plane of growth, that we may truly estimate their individu-
464 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
alities. The purpose of this book is to teach us to see all
conditions of growth subject to a common law, which re-
peats itself in nature, humanity, and divinity. This book
is therefore a practical text-book of psychology, since it
teaches us how to study the child as he is, wherever he is.
When we have thoroughly studied the specimen characters,
including environment, as presented in the chapters of "Die
Mutter und Kose-Lieder," we may then turn, like the natu-
ralist, to any heath or highway and read the meaning of the
"humblest flower that blows."
Let us group a few of the songs wherein Froebel seeks
to show us the child in his nature environment,— "The Grass
Mowing," "Beckoning to the Chickens," "The Fishes."
Grass-mozvvng Song. — Mother, have a purpose in all you
say or do. Your activity is the type, to the child, of life's
great purpose. Unity or logic in your life teaches him the
law of unity in all life. This sense of unity is his environ-
ment. He must never lose faith in life's unity, if he is to
keep his environment complete. This hint to the mother is
the keynote to the song, and its sermon. As before, study
the picture and story carefully, and formulate in your own
way the various illustrations of the central thought. By
what means is a child made conscious of the unity of na-
ture? May a knowledge of unity become clear to the child
as an abstraction? Does the child see, hear, feel, or know
in fragments or in wholes? Is he conscious of incomplete-
nesses? Is the adult more, or less, responsive to nature than
is the child? Should inharmonious experiences, thoughts,
or words be presented to the child that he may know life
from the common standpoint of the adult? Is industry an
essential quality or adjunct to life? Does the omnipresent
law of activity impel industry? Could the child develop
into normal maturity without being industrious? Does
man's dependence upon his fellow man necessitate indus-
try? Could humanity stand as an organic unit without in-
terchange of labor? Is gratitude a natural result of this in-
terdependence? When the child traces the processes by
which his bowl of bread and milk are made possible, is his
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT, 465
thought turned in upon himself, or out into the universe and
its laws? Does he appreciate or underestimate his fellow
man in consequence? Will he honor his immediate family
and parents more, or less, through a knowledge of the great
services rendered by them? Will he be impelled to serve
in return? Will life be a nobler reality to him when he sees
himself a part of the interlaced and intertwined humanity?
How can this lesson of a world-wide environment be made
clear to a child of five years? Is it clear to you, mother,
kindergartner? What story or song can you use in place of
this one presented by Froebel, which will embody the same
principle? What historical instances could you cite to older
boys and girls which would emphasize the interdependence
of mankind? What books do you know which would take
men and women beyond their immediate problems into uni-
versal processes?
The song of "Calling the Chickens " is provided with one
of the most choice illustrations in the entire "Mother-Play
Book." Look at the picture, and interpret the story with-
out referring to the text. The stately mother carries the
child out into the open air, beckoning and calling the
chickens to come to them. Other children, larger and
smaller, go out toward the fowl cautiously, encouraging
them to come near. Man is not separated from the nature
life about him. All creatures are bound by invisible law in
one fellowship. There are no higher or lower animal king-
doms. The chickens need not hesitate to become the com-
panions of little children. Little children need not pass
through the heartless traditions that man is an enemy to
other animals by the law of the survival of the fittest. The
child is growing older, and custom may teach him lessons
of antagonism and cruelty. The wise mother takes him out
into the sunlight and counteracts these unconscious breaches
between man and his fellow nature. The environment is
again sustained, is preserved unbroken. Siegfried,* of the
old myth, understood the language of the birds because
there was no hate or fear in his heart. Read now Froebel's
* See " Child Stories from the Masters," $1 .
466 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
interpretation of the picture. A sincerity and warmth lie
back of the simple word-picture, which cannot fail to bring
every reader nearer to the heart of nature. "The sturdy
tree 'neath whose kindly shade little children loiter that
they may drink in the being of nature," becomes a friend, a
personality, which may well typify man's aspiration.
The song of the Fishes is found on page 43 of the Lee
& Shepard edition. The following version of the motto we
believe fully expresses the author's intent:
Wherever activity is seen,
Baby's eye is thither drawn.
When 'tis found in liquid deeps,
Baby's heart with joy o'erleaps.
By intuition strong and sure,
He knows again the sweet, the pure.
This gives the reason why all children are fascinated by
swimming fishes, running brooks, or flying birds. It should
also make clear to us why it is of profit to play the games
of birds and fishes, or to tell stories about their active lives,
and best of all, to set the children free to watch and play
among them. Is any creature free or beautiful apart from
his natural environment? Are there varying conditions
and surroundings, each fitting the needs of certain creatures?
By what authority does education exclude natural and pro-
vide artificial environments? Describe your own ideal of
the proper environment for little children? Is your kinder-
garten or your family life an embodiment of this ideal? In
what respects are kindergartners given to seize the body of
the fish, — the letter of the law, — and by so doing lose their
grasp of the spirit which animates it? When asked by
strangers to define the kindergarten, would you first men-
tion the gifts and materials? Is the kindergarten in any
sense a system? See the third article of this series, for
Froebel's estimate of the meaning of the word "kindergar-
ten" (page 201 of November Kindergarten Magazine).
Are you, as the mother, a minor quantity in this environ-
ment? Read the story, "Fish and Butterfly,"* by Maude
*See " Child Stories fi'om the Masters,"" $i.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 467
Menefee, and find the contrast between environments, and
the moral that true growth of individuality depends upon
the creature fulfilling the law of his own, and not of an-
other's, being.
We shall be pleased to answer in this department any
questions called forth by these articles. — Amalic Hofcr.
THE TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM.
IV.
THE CHORDAL GROUPING OF TONES AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF
THE SCALE.
In a previous article another distinguishing feature of
the Tonic Sol-fa method was referred to: i. e., the grouping
of the tones of the scale in chords, which, as will now be
perceived, is but another application of the theory of men-
tal effect.
In presenting the tones in chords, the ear is led to asso-
ciate those tones which are most frequently combined.
This arrangement of the seven tones of the scale will be
more quickly appreciated when we consider that adjacent
tones are dissonant, and that the mind and ear will be
trained more accurately if the tones presented are conso-
nant and not dissonant.
The proper blending of the tones necessary to form a
chord is very pleasing to the ear, and makes a strong im-
pression on the mind, which will linger in the memory so
that when the chord tone is heard again its two companions
are readily recalled.
After the presentation of each of these three principal
chords (D, S, F) in their order, practice is given with adja-
cent tones as well as with the chord tones. The ability to
sing extended leaps, even with limited practice, is in many
cases remarkable, and decidedly encouraging. With the
teaching of these three chords, the diatonic scale has been
learned. As shown in the diagrams, a certain place is as-
signed to each of these chords, the reason for which will be
discussed later. The same manner of writing is observed
Vol. 6-29
468 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
until the pupil has become more familiar with the tones;
then, with his assistance the notes, or signs of the tones, are
written one above the other in stepwise or scale order, and
he has presented for his consideration the regular or com-
mon scale.
Although the teacher may have been careful to maintain
the proper space between the notes, albeit they were not
written directly one under another, as shown in the third
diagram (see January No.), when they are arranged in scale
form the following (No. IV) would probably be accepted
by the pupil as correct:
dohi
te
lah
soli
fah
ray
doh doh
A second writing, as illustrated, will show the pupil that
the spaces between the notes are not equal; in short, that
the scale is composed of three kinds of steps, which are
designated as greater, smaller, and little, in the order shown
in diagram V. The application of mental effect in this in-
stance will enable the pupil to appreciate the different kinds
of steps. By singing the tones from doh to doh^, slowly
and carefully, the difference in the steps w^ill be felt and
more truly appreciated.
It may be asked what constitutes the difference between
the steps. According to Sir John Herschel there are i,000
degrees in the octave. Each greater step contains 170 de-
grees; each smaller step 152 degrees, and each little step
93 degrees. The number of degrees in each step is divided
dohi
te
little
greater
lah
soh
smaller
greater
fah
me
little
smaller
ray
greater
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 469
into kommas, each of which contains i8 degrees. A greater
step, therefore, with a little calculation will be found to con-
tain 9 kommas and a fraction; the smaller, 8 and a fraction;
and the little, 5 and a fraction. The fractions are, for ordi-
nary illustration, omitted, so that the numbers stand 9, 8, 5,
respectivel3\ From doh to doh\ therefore, according to
the preceding numbers, will be 53 kommas.
After the second chord has been introduced and practice
given, the characters of the two new tones t and r having
been developed and emphasized by the manual signs, a
phrase containing all the tones is sung, and a pause made oh
/. The pupil is requested to finish the phrase. Invariably
he will sing the proper tone (^1 ) to produce the desired
effect, which is that of rest or satisfaction. The impulse to
sing <^i after t has been sung is very strong and gives a
sense of relief to the mind in contrast to the suspense cre-
ated by the preceding tone. So also with the tone r; the
pupil will respond with the tone d after hearing a phrase
where the pause was made on r. If asked to end the phrase
on some other tone not far removed from r, he is led to sing
m, which makes a good ending, but one not so satisfactor)'
as if </ is used. The teacher in these cases asks a question;
the pupil gives the answer. So also when the third chord
has been taught. After / we require to hear s; and the
strong tendency of /to m is very marked and quickly appre-
ciated by the pupil.
Particular importance is given to the little steps of the
scale {m f, t d"^), occurring between the third and fourth
and seventh and eighth intervals respectively. This will be
referred to again and more fully explained in another
branch of the subject.
It is proper at this point in the course to use a printed
Tonic Sol-fa modulator, which the pupil has been prepared
to understand by the foregoing instruction. Had it been in
use previous to this stage many questions would have been
asked of the teacher which now the pupil is able to answer
for himself. Everything it contains will seem quite easy to
him, and his delight at being able to apply the knowledge
470 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
he possesses will give a new zest to the work and cause him
much satisfaction. The following is a copy of the printed
modulator:
DOHi
TE
LAH
SOH
FAH
ME
RAY
DOH
ti
li
Si
After the foregoing preparation it seems hardly neces-
sary to explain the diagram; but to make the illustration
more complete, attention is directed to the following points:
A careful observation of the modulator shows the difference
between the tones of the foundation chord (D) and the
other tones of the scale. The strong tones are indicated by
upright letters and the leaning tones by slanting letters.
The former are printed in heavy type and the latter in light
type. It will be noticed that capitals are used for the
names of the tones in the principal octave. This is done
only on the modulator. The degrees before mentioned are
not indicated on this, the Third Step modulator, but will be
given when the extended modulator is presented. It is bet-
ter that the pupil should not have more given him at any
stage than he readily understands. It is sufficient for him
to digest what is placed before him in the last diagram. —
Emma A. Lord.
SOME HOMELY QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
To the Editors of the Kindergarten Magazine: — Having
a good deal of sympathy for the perplexed kindergartner
from Connecticut, I beg leave to answer her questions, not
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 471
from a wiser, but probably more experienced standpoint.
[See January number.]
1. Keep the children interested and busy, and they will
forget to indulge in these habits. Tell them you want to
help them overcome these ungentle little ways, and you will
find the children very responsive; and each day there will
be some improvement, so that by the end of the term the
habits will be permanently overcome.
2. The division of time which I have found to be most
advantageous is the following: 9 to 9.30, good -morning
songs, new song, morning talk or story; 9.30 to 9.40, sea-
sonable songs, with gesture, physical exercise, march with
chairs to tables; 9.40 to 10, gift work; 10 to 10.30, short
recess and games; 10.30 to 10.50, luncheon; 10.50 to ii,
march or exercise songs; ii to 1 1.30, occupation; 11.30 to
11.45, the children's quarter of an hour, when they recite a
poem, tell a story, sing a song (we call this our concert,
and it is enjoyed by teachers and children alike); 11.45 ^^
12, preparations for dismissal (sing a good-by song, shake
hands, and say good-by).
3. No, it is not wise to tell a story every day, as that
would be too great a tax on the children's memory, and
also exhausting to the teacher, I should think. We want
the story to be the connecting link between the morning
talk of one day and the new song of another, giving the
child time to digest and give it back in his own words.
4. The games should always be connected with the
morning talk, as with everything else that is done in the
kindergarten. The children may not always see the con-
nection at first, but a suggestion from the kindergartner will
lead them to see it, and through this to imbibe the truth of
the interdependence of all things. — A. H. Wardle.
THE BROKEN RING. — A CRITICISM.
True criticism is impersonal. With an eye for inward
meaning and for outward form it sees the ideals of things,
and, looking from the inner to the outer, longs ever to greet
the inner life and law through the medium of the outward
472 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
form, the use of form being to clothe and bring into view
the fire of life within. In the kindergarten the question
always is, How nearly is it expressing its ideal? This ideal
is in no way vague or dreamy. It is the use of forms as a
means of expression for the life force of the children, the
form being chosen from elementary forms in nature, used in
creation to express the divine, used on earth to express the
human; the human thought and action being, in expression,
in accordance with the divine. This ideal the students of
Froebel seek to follow in all they say and do. All criticism,
then, has relation to our ideals. It is suggestive of princi-
ple only, and of desire for perfect growth.
It was the close of a morning in the kindergarten. The
children rose, and with the assistant teachers came from the
different tables, each division taking its place on the floor
until all were gathered there. But the circle was not closed.
On one side the children stood close together, on the other
they were scattered along, and finally, for a space of several
feet, the ring was left open. The kindergartner stood in
the center. Having something to say to certain children,
she called them to her from various parts of the ring. After
she had spoken these children remained standing irregularly
about her, and without regard to the broken ring the good-by
was sung, and all were dismissed. Why was so slight a
thing of consequence, and why was this broken ring con-
trary to kindergarten principle and ideal? The broken ring
was a broken kindergarten form; and in the kindergarten
all forms are significant of the living movements and right
progress of the human spirit. For illustration of this we
follow Froebel, and turn to nature to study the relation be-
tween form and force, to find the origin and value of the
ring in nature and society, and to see why, as the last ex-
pression of the morning, the kindergarten ring should be
perfectly formed.
The sphere is the beginning of things in nature, and con-
sequently it is the beginning of the kindergarten. With its
single face, and with all its points of boundary at even dis-
tances from its center, the sphere is absolute, unbroken
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 473
form. It is the first form in nature; it is the form of the
universe, the sun, and the earth. It is the first sign of the
power of God, of his unity and force. It represents person-
ality, an entire sphere of life. It stands for and typifies
both the divine Life above and lesser lives below, — the
spheres of individual human souls. Because of this original
character as the first form taken by force in its movement
outward from God, the ball is the First Gift in the kinder-
garten, the first thing seen and handled by the child. It is
given for its unity; and the circle, as we say (strictly speak-
ing, the ring), the circumference, is shown to be an outer
boundary of the sphere, complete, perfect, without begin-
ning and without end. Unity is thus the character of the
First Gift. As a whole the sphere is representative of the
Infinite. It is heavenly and spiritual in character. The
child receives it as a whole. As the sun and the earth are
connected by the sun's physical light, and God and human-
ity by His spiritual light, so correspondingly the child re-
ceives his ball by lines of color, the separated rays of sun-
light, which still do not break the ball's unity of form, but
rather help to reveal it.
The sphere having given color, next, from its own cen-
ter, produces the second concrete form, — the cube. It is
the opposite of unity. It represents the earth and the work
of man. It brings division, dispersion, the parts in place of
the whole, and with it the child begins that life movement
by which the world grows, — the use of material, the pro-
duction of diversity. But in order to preserve that standard
of unity, which, once given, must be retained as the heav-
enly guide to earthly action, the cube itself is given as a
whole. Each cube is in its box and each box is alike, and
no matter what the divisions within or the expansion with-
out, after all construction, as we know, the child rebuilds
his material into its original unity and sees it go from him
as it came, a perfect solid. The kindergarten gifts are pre-
cise, and however used they remain as types, as units of
form. On the other hand, in the occupations, materials de-
rived from the gifts are to be made up by industry and sent
474 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
out in any shape; but even here the law for each child is
transformation of material without loss, and no loose ends
or unfinished places are allowed. Froebel says, "The in-
ward is made known by means of the outward;" and each
form must be complete outwardly, as a sign of the complete
idea within. Thus we have the teaching of nature, the ex-
pansion of life into form, the perfecting of form for the sake
of the life within. The beginning of life is unity. The chil-
dren stand near that beginning, and following nature, their
life, in its elementary greatness, takes simple expression.
In producing, when left to themselves they work with a few
large lines, and in the production of this, the circle of life
upon the floor, it is notable that they take an interest in its
perfection, which to the thoughtful mind is highly signifi-
cant of the growth of their mental idea of precision, which
is geometry, and their instinctive joy in union, which is
spiritual sensibility. It is, then, in the great harmony of
life, for principle's sake, for the sake of unity, presented first
in the sphere and repeated by the children on the floor, that
their ring of life should, by their own action, be made per-
fect.
As a form it is related to unity in nature, to unity in the
Creator, and to the unity of society. Therefore should not
the circle be, in that closing moment, a harmony of form, a
harmony of voice, a unity of life? Harmony is the result
of right relationship of parts in a whole. In the ring the
center is "the abiding point"; the children are the living
circumference, and perfection comes through each child's
sense of relationship to the center.
.AH great movements of nature are spheric or spheroidal,
with a common center for their point of control. In the
ages of history men have caught inspiration from these
great lines of horizon and vortex, from the sweeping circular
motions by which time has been measured, by which moons
have risen and stars have set; and under their influence the
deepest thoughts of mankind have been signified by the
symbols of the circle and the sphere. The darkened,
winged globe of Egypt, the winged ring of Persia, the circle
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 475
of India, the circle filled with circles, one within another,
until the center was but a shadow still pointing inward to
Divinity, — all this great thought and love of humanity is
linked to the thought and action of the kindergarten when
it sets its children together in a ring upon the floor. It is a
meaningful action. It is science and history, poetry and
promise, of what yet shall be.
It is the teaching of nature that life, coming from the
Infinite in unity, as to the flower seed, lives through its earth
life, expanding its parts to blossoming, and returning again
to unity in the seed. Following this law of nature the chil-
dren begin each morning by marking the circumference of
the kindergarten sphere as a whole. From that unity they
disperse to take up their several tasks; but when these are
over they are again drawn together to complete the morn-
ing's life, as, taking part in the outer boundary, each faces
the common center. Nature in her great spiral movements
works toward perfection and rest. Surely it is a principle
taken from nature that the closing moments in the ring
should be gentle and altogether happy! Struggles with
material or with temper, personalities, comparisons, and
efforts of earth should be dropped, and the ring should for
a moment again represent the heavenly, which is a sphere
of peace. This is the ideal of the kindergarten ring, which
by its single line indicates the whole of its unseen sphere.
It is the ideal toward which we labor, seeking to bring the
living vision outward into social, human form. — Mary H.
Pcabody.
PRIMARY LANGUAGE AND FORM STUDY.
(Story illustrated by tablet and stick laying.)
How many children have storybooks at home? Who
has a storybook with pictures?
Let us play make a book today. You will be the artists,
and I'll be — what? Who knows what a person who writes
a book is called? An author; yes.
Now listen very closely, because, you know, your pic-
476
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
tures must help tell the story. The name of this story is
to be
TEDDIE.
One dark morning, when the clouds were making believe
they were going to send rain down to the early spring
(I
A
D
flowers, Ted asked his mamma what he could do to pass
away the time.
He was to go with his papa for a drive along the pleas-
ant river road that afternoon, and it seemed to him that the
time from breakfast till two o'clock was, as he said to
mamma, " Most a week long."
Mamma told him he might help her to set out the ferns
they had gathered in the woods not long before. Ted
could not see any fun in that, and he sat down on the front
A
m
^
^zi
^
c
steps to think about it. Soon a fat robin flew down from
the cherry tree and came hopping toward him, seeming to
say with each hop, and flirt of his gay little head, " Better
do it, better do it." "Well," thought Ted after awhile,
"perhaps I had;" and he ran to tell mamma to set him at
work.
His papa that morning had turned over the sod between
the lilac bushes, and made a long and narrow flower bed.
Now Ted took his little spade and wagon, and taking
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
477
some rich black earth from behind the barn, he covered the
flower bed over with it. Then he raked the top of the bed
very smooth and even. After this his mamma came out
with a basket, and taking the ferns out gently, put them
down in their new home.
Then Ted took the watering can, and, filling it many
times at the pump, sprinkled each plant well.
His mamma feared the sun might come out, as the clouds
had begun to drift aw^ay, so she told Teddie to go into the
D
V
house and get an umbrella, which she opened and placed
over the plants. When this was all done, Ted found that
lunch was ready, and he told the fat robin who sang in the
cherry tree — "It wasn't such a long morning after all."
Whom was the story about? What did Teddie ask his
mamma? Why did the morning seem long? etc. — M. Helen
Jennings. Illustrated by Wilhelmina Seegmiller.
478 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
SECOND-GIFT PLAY.
This is the method by which we discovered the cylinder,
the connecting form between the solids, sphere and cube:
Give each child a cube and direct him to place it seven
inches from the edge of the table. Lead children to talk
of trips they have taken by the cars. Suggest that cubes
would do for railway stations. Let all blow vigorously and
see if they would stand a high wind. Draw from children
that the ball would make a good train. Let children be
conductors and call out "All aboard!" as train rolls from
station to station. "What makes engines move, and where
do they obtain water to transform into steam?" Send a
child to find something in the Second-gift box which would
do for the water tank. Roll the cylinders across the table
and set them up between the stations. Now let all blow
again to see if they stand steady. The engine may now
travel from tank to tank as it requires water. — C. S. N.
A VALENTINE.
' Let us send to the flowers a valentine,"
Cried the gay North Wind to the Mountain Pine;
So he shook its branches, and from them threw
The crystals of frost and the snowflakes, too.
Whirling them down like a fine cloud of lace.
And spreading them gently over the place
Where the summer wild flowers grew.
And the flowers, hid in their bed so deep,
Smiled as the babies of earth in their sleep.
Warm sheltered by Love the long winter through.
They wait till the spring for their life made new;
Waiting and sleeping down under the snow.
As the Wind and the Pine, in whisper low,
Sang, "Love to you; oh, love to you!"
— Cornelia Fulton Crary.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 479
THE TYPICAL PROGRAM APPLIED TO THE DAILY VICISSITUDE.
IV.
(See general outline in the October Kindergarten Magazine.
These articles are records of our program as actually carried out;
hence they appear after the actual months in which they were pre-
sented to the children.)
For our October work we naturally come to the consid-
eration of "trees," from our having lived with the "rock
family" in September. The substance of earth formation
being observed, we were led to the discussion of various
kinds of soil. The tree is typical of all vegetation. We
considered the tree, first, in relation to the earth; second,
the life and structure of the tree; third, fruit bearing, and
fruit-bearing plant life, as relative to man and animals.
In the morning the children were shown a "buckeye."
Many of them in their rough coats were noticed by children
and teachers. "If we plant this nut, what will grow?" "A
buckeye tree," said Mary. " How will it grow?" The chil-
dren stand to represent trees, and move their toes, saying.
Yes, they are the roots of the trees, while arms show the
branches, body the trunk, hands and fingers the leaves,
blossom, and fruit, which in this case is the nut.
Another day a picture of a palm tree is drawn on the
blackboard with the three pyramids, which we call stone
mountains with steps, that the people may find foothold in
climbing them. The long river flowing through the long
and narrow strip of land is drawn. Children show river
narrow (arms extended forward), then wider, when arms
are slowly moved away from each other. Children are
much interested in this.
Though it rains so little, the roots of the trees get water
by the overflow of the Nile River. Clinton and Eddie say
"Men made these stone and brick mountains," and James
says "God makes the real mountains."
"Is this palm tree like our trees?" "No." "But is it
a tree?" "Yes." "Why?" "It has roots, trunk, branches,
leaves, and fruit." Clinton says the palm-leaf fans come
from this tree. "Yes, but there are different kinds of palm
480 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
trees. The kind that has the dates is not the kind that has
the broad leaves which make the fans." The children stand
and try to represent the palm trees, with arms brought well
up against head and hands drooped outward. Some show
date fruit.
At the tables the outline cards of trees are sewed, and
fruit is shown with gummed dots put on after trees are en-
tirely finished. In the sand table, rows of trees are planted.
With the pillars of the Sixth Gift tree boxes are made to
protect tender saplings. With sticks flat upon the table,
we have rows of trees, in groups of ten each, and show one
tree complete with its fruit (lentils). The children con-
tinue to bring stones of various kinds, and also now bring
quite a variety of fruit, and we talk of the kinds of trees
from which it comes.
The picture of the palm tree and pyramids, also the
drawing of the sphinx on the blackboard, delighted the
children so much that from this they talked of the camels
and donkeys from Egypt, and even those children who had
not been to the World's Fair found the Street of Cairo very
real. After the drawing of the sphinx's head we became
sculptors ourselves, carving out heads and features, until
upon the circle two complete figures were chiseled out. A
large white apron was thrown over one child, and the form
began to take shape. First the cloth was lowered and the
head was blocked out; then eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair
in waving lines (finger for chisel), noticing shape and pro-
portion of features. Then the cloth lowered still more re-
vealed the torso, and lastly the whole figure stood in pure
white marble. Children were eager to be sculptors as well
as blocks of marble.
Nearly all the children express their thoughts freely
through the medium of drawing, and the processes of the
child's mind are better interpreted by the use of slate,
blackboard, paper, pencil, paint, and clay, than by any
other occupation material by those who can discern the
meaning of their crude representations. The children are
asked to draw the apple and buckeye tree. They bring so
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
481
many apples and buckeyes, they are interested in drawing
the kind of trees they grow upon. A peculiarity noticed
among the children is, that in stick laying and drawing
many will reverse the picture, making roots up and tree
down, or show the tree as lying sideways. When these
children's attention is called to this, they say: "Oh, yes; I
know the way the tree grows;" or, "Oh, I know the way it
ought to be." Again, in drawing on the blackboard, a child
will be quite satisfied with his apple tree this way, or an-
o e
o e
• e
e o
other child draws his tree like this. The characteristics of
form in a typical tree do not appear to our children of four
years of age and under, while our older children, in indi-
cating the form of a tree with its structural peculiarities of
curved and angular branches, do not distinguish between
the low, broad growth of the apple tree and the aspiring
limbs of the horse chestnut. Instead of insisting that the
children should represent the true form of the tree, it seems
better merely to keep the correct pictures before them,
especially such pictures as indicate the characteristics of
tree growth. In this way the child gradually acquires a
better conception of tree structure in general, while the
imaginative impress he holds which leads him to represent
the tree as he thinks of it, is not weakened or violently dis-
turbed.
482 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The children soon learn that nuts are a kind of fruit.
Acorns, walnuts, pignuts, buckeyes, hickory nuts, date
seeds, peach stones, cherry stones, and other varieties of
nuts and fruit are brought by the children with great delight
and interest on their part. We must make room for what we
are collecting this month, so we take away the stones and
fragments of rock there are so many of, leaving only one
or two good specimens of different related members of the
rock family.
Children now bring beautiful leaves to the kindergarten
in their rich autumn dresses. We sing, "Come, little leaves,"
and at playtime we have "the trees all in a row, gently
swaying to and fro" (" Kindergarten Chimes" ); but the chil-
dren feel closer to tree life when all on the circle are taking
some part in the nature play that continues from day to
day. The following instance illustrates this interest: Lillie,
Cherry, Willie, Clinton, and Sunshine put their heads to-
gether and decide they will plant an orchard. The little
trees are set out. Every child on the circle watches to see
what part he is to play in " Nature's Serial .Story." They
wait patiently until they hear the words, "See the sun-
beams gently touch the young trees," and while they are
growing the rain cloud sends the falling raindrops to help
them (these the older children represent). The trees have
now their full growth and are putting forth blossoms (fin-
gers opening). Soon they will bear fruit, and at the chil-
dren's suggestion the bright balls are hung upon the trees.
Birds now fly about, for their homes are in the trees, and
sometimes they peck at the bright fruit. Mr. Wind begins
to blow, and down fall the apples; children run to gather
them. "What shall we do with our fruit?" A child wishes
to sell it to the others (or give it). The balls are all put
in their basket, and one of the children carrying it on her
arm goes to the others on the circle, with the words, " I am
a little gardener" (" Kindergarten Chimes"). The children
also have a fruit store.
Another day we dramatize a nutting party with squirrels
scampering out from the rocks to gather the nuts. Again
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
483
the bright-colored autumn leaves that Jack Frost has
painted, flutter down and cover the sleeping seeds (baby
children cuddled on floor), while we sing:
To the great brown house where the seed children sleep
Came the leaves in the wind and stcrm,
And whispered, "Seed children, drowsy with sleep,
We'll cover you over and safely keep
You all the winter long — yes, all the winter long,"
Said the leaves, covering warm, warm, warm.
In the sand table we had an orchard one day that told
an effective story. The farmer's house was built of Second-
gift cubes and cylinders, thus:
The trees were planted in orderly rows (fringed paper for
foliage), and under each tree were the beautiful ripe apples
(red, green, and yellow Second-gift beads). But alas! at
one end of the orchard was a blighted tree with crippled
trunk, scant foliage, and upon the ground lay the dwarfed
and stunted fruit (for this the wood-colored lentils were
chosen).
Under fruit-bearing plant life we entered a rich field.
For our especial subject we chose the pumpkin vine. The
children mentioned the currant, blackberry, raspberry,
grape, tomato, potato, pea, and bean.
"What are ripe now in the farmers' gardens, lying large,
ripe, and golden on the ground?" " Pumpkins and cishaws."
At playtime children represented pumpkin vines by lying
upon the floor, with arms entwined, while the orange-col-
ored balls were the pumpkin blossoms. Children after-
Vol. 6-30
484 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
wards are a pumpkin pie. With us the pumpkin, cishaw,
sweet potato, and squash are favorite vegetables.
One day a friend from the country brought us an opos-
sum. The little fellow looked bristley, with sharp eyes,
teeth, and claws. The only thing to do was to keep tight
hold of his tail (there was no box or house for him), while
the children eagerly crowded around him. In our predica-
ment, Harrison, a colored supernumerary about the place,
came to our relief, saying: " Heah, Miss, gib him to me, an'
I'll tame him up for you so's he'll make a nice pet." This
was some days ago, and the old negro says nothing as to
his possumship. It is feared that the gustatory delights
of possum cooked with sweet potato have proved too strong
a temptation for old Harrison, and that he has sacrificed
our future pet to his appetite for this most savory of dishes
to the negro palate. The morning the opossum arrived
at the kindergarten he was the subject of our talk during
the morning circle. The way the mother possum carries
her young upon her back, "laughing like a possum," "play-
ing possum," are familiar characteristics to many of our
children. The intense pleasure our children take in de-
scriptions, stories, and anecdotes of animals, especially
where the animals themselves talk in propria persona, in-
clines one to believe that a revised version of "Uncle Re-
mus" should be prepared for our Kentucky children in the
kindergarten. — Laura P. Charles.
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NURSERY. — TEACHING THE BABY
THROUGH PLAY AND STORY.
III.
The purpose of all true education is to harmoniously un-
fold the inner or divine life. "Character building," Eliza-
beth Harrison calls it. The teaching and training of the
babe is simply encouraging the life within to manifest itself
in deeds which are the result of the voluntary action of the
divinely directed will. For each and every child is under
divine guidance from birth, and if not interfered with grows
in grace and beauty until the outer world comes face to face
with the soul. Then the struggle begins which tests the
will and the quality of the character.
The first indication of conscious life is activity; and to
bring forth clear, definite consciousness this activity must
be specialized, must be made definite. Begin by being
gently definite in a few things with the laughing, cooing
baby. When it becomes conscious of one thing take up
another, making sure to maintain the logical relation be-
tween the two; one thing should be the natural, logical out-
growth of another. There should be orderly or logical
movements of the limbs from the first; thus the babe comes
to look for things to come in logical order, and this leads
to connected, logical thinking and acting later; and thus
the consequences of the act, the deed, will dawn slowly but
clearly upon the young mind. Experience is the best
teacher, and it should be a happy, helpful teacher in youth
instead of a bitter one in maturity. So let the creeping and
toddling babe learn largely from experience, while the
mother love stands guard.
Create an atmosphere of joy throughout the whole
house, that the young child may not know sorrow. All
young things are happy. Notice how much the animal
486 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
mothers play with their young; how the body is strength-
ened and the intelligence quickened in play. The whole
interior nature of the little child can be revealed to the
mother in play. The play of the child should be more to
the mother than the theater or the opera. Joy in the
mother will awaken joy in the child. In play the noblest
ideals can be strongly held in the minds of the parents, and
they will be thrown in upon the young mind; and under the
law of correspondences they will quicken that in the child
that corresponds to their ideal.
A few weeks ago two little girls asked me to tell them a
story. As the Christmas time was coming, I asked if they
wanted a Christmas story. Both spoke at once, in the
dreariest tone: "Oh, don't tell us any old Bible stories! we
are just sick of them." "Would you like to hear a story of
a baby?" "Yes." "Well, once there was a baby born who
was just like all other babies except in one thing. You
know that when we were babies we loved our parents, our
brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors, and they all
loved us; and as we grow older we love the people who are
agreeable to us, the people who love us. But this baby
was born to love all children and all people. He loved all
the little children in his village and in his country. When
he was old enough to go to the large city, he loved all the
people in that city and in other cities. He loved all the
people of Asia, of Africa, of Europe; all the people on the
islands far out in the sea; the people who lived away up be-
yond the Arctic Circle, w^here it is always cold — oh, so
cold! all the people down under the equator, where it is so,
so hot; he loved the poor people whom no one had ever
thought of before; the slaves, the laborers, and the foolish
ones. He loved everybody and everything; not only the
people and things that lived then, but all the people that
live now; all the people in the United States — our country,
which was then not even discovered — and all the people in
the whole of North America and in South America; the
people who are in prisons, all the bad people as well as the
good, all the people who are down deep in the earth dig-
mothers' department. 487
ging out the coal to keep us warm, and all the people who
work in factories making cloths for our clothes; and the
people who work at the hot furnaces where the iron ore is
melted and worked in shape for us to use in stoves and
plows, and in the engines that pull the long trains of cars.
We love the people who love us, but he loved the people
who hated him. We love the people we know; he loved
the people he never saw nor heard of. Was he not a won-
derful baby?"
Both children were perfectly still and were gazing off
into space as if expecting the babe to appear any moment;
looking, too, as if they longed to see Him, the Wonderful
One. "Tell us some more about that baby! What did he
do when he grew to be a man?" "That would be a Bible
story." "Oh, tell us some Bible stories!"
The ideal I had in mind for the Christmas time was love,
a great universal, all-pervading love, as deep as the center
of the earth and as high as the stars. In the souls of these
two little girls was that same love, but it had never been
awakened. They had intense family love and great love
for friends; but of the love that saw in imagination all the
children of the earth, of all colors, and of all sorts and con-
ditions, they were not yet conscious. I touched the love
center in each little heart; it awakened into activity and
vibrated to the keynote. I also wanted to give them a new
and a fresh idea of the Bible; and see how quickly they re-
sponded to my thought! — Anna N. Kendall.
EXTRACT FROM "THE TRUE EDUCATION AND THE FALSE.
Regarding the creative faculties of your children — who
is taking care of these? The age is putting the receptive
faculties of the child to their utmost tension, while the cre-
ative ones are starved. It is not right; it is not just. What
are you doing to develop and preserve the dignity of man-
ual labor? Have you set aside on your playground a site for
a carpenter's shop, or a blacksmith's forge, or a chemical
laboratory, or a machine shop? Many of our children have
488 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
a contempt for manual labor, and it is our fault that it is so.
The greatest moral teacher in the world was not ashamed
to be a carpenter; and Elihu Burritt planned the good of
mankind as he stood by his glowing forge. A man never
falls so low but that he may be dignified by some kind of
manual labor. All this discernment must come, not alone
through mathematics, but through a harmonious drawing
out of those faculties which bring the child, and later the
man, into relationship with his environment. Emerson
may well say that "Things are in the saddle, and ride man-
kind"; but are we not alive today to grapple with these ob-
stinate "things," and to turn them into their own proper
paths?
It is a part of the whole wrong thinking about education
that study alone will make a boy great or develop his higher
nature. Phillips Brooks once stopped the writer in the
street, and said a man might study until he became a gray-
head and not be great. It was not in the grammar school
at Stratford that Shakespeare learned the lessons which
were to make him the articulate voice of England. The
little Latin and Greek he got there would have made him
at best but a sorry pedagogue. Still, no man was ever wise
by chance. The whole country round about was his school-
house. Some fine spirit led his mind out of the narrow
grooves of mere book knowledge into the way of looking
upon the world- as his workshop; whether by the dreamy
Avon side, in misty vales, by winding hedge roads, or in
the stately churchyard, — no matter where, — the boy learned
to bring himself into relationship with every living thing,
and to him everything was alive. It was a world of spirit.
If the Stratford school did not furnish this order of educa-
tion, it was not the child Shakespeare's fault.
Let us learn to look upon every child face that comes
before us as a possible Shakespeare or Michael Angelo or
Beethoven; believe me, every child that comes up before
you has hidden somewhere in its being this precious capac-
ity for something creative. We must change our attitude
toward the common children. When we look upon each as
mothers' department. 489
a possible genius, then shall we add new dignity to human
life. Wordsworth well said,
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come.
Why do we neglect the words of our poet seers? The artis-
tic world is rejoicing over the discovery in Greece of some
beautiful fragments of sculpture, hidden far beneath the
debris of centuries; shall we not rejoice more richly when
we are able to dig down beneath the uncouth surface of the
commonest child that comes to us from our great cities, and
discover and develop that faculty in him which is to make
him fit to live in sobriety and usefulness with his fellow
men? Seeking for these qualities in the child, we shall
best conserve, as is done in physical nature, the highest
type, until we have raised all human life to a higher level.
Then shall we have heaven in our midst. This is the more
possible because of the quick, expansive material with
which we have to deal in our country. We start even in
the race of life; we recognize no hampering bonds of
priestcraft or tradition. The men who have filled the high-
est position in our state have come, often, from the lowest
grades in society. The lowliest child has in it something
to command our respect. Let us have no more polishing
of pebbles and dimming of diamonds. There are no peb-
bles; we but think so, not having the wit to discern the
diamond in the rough.
Let us, then, unfold the whole nature of the child and
not a little corner of it. Let no ridicule deter us from our
desire to consider education in its true light. We are to
teach these children, or rather to show them, the ways by
which they are to make this world spiritually, as well as
materially, their own; we are to be practical, but greatly,
not meagerly, so. We are to teach them that before doing
great things they must dream them; that the wonderful
bridge that connects the throbbing heart of New York with
its sister city, Brooklyn, was first a dream of that eminently
practical engineer, Roebling. We must bring into chil-
490 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
dren's lives every poetic influence, to quicken their minds
and develop their aesthetic nature. We speak much of the
beauty of holiness, not enough of the holiness of beauty.
Sappho sang, "Who is beautiful is good." — William Ordway
Partridge, i?i January Arena, iSg^.
HOW TO SELECT SCHOOLS TO FIT THE CHILDREN.
In this age of general education very many parents in
moderate circumstances are ambitious to give their chil-
dren the best advantages in acquiring a first-class educa-
tion; yet such often err in the selection of schools.
Unfortunately there are many teachers who are in no
way qualified to hold their positions; for even if they pos-
sess the requisite knowledge, they have no power of impart-
ing it; and what is yet more to be deplored, they have no
love for young people, and are not in sympathy with them.
Sentiment should have nothing to do with the selection
of a school; proof should be obtained that the school is
a good one, and in every way suitable to the particular
needs of the child or children sent to it.
With the generality of children, so far as study is con-
cerned, a good general education is the best preparation
for every calling in life. Practical knowledge, with the
culture which comes from reading, will do more to fit a boy
or girl for a profession, than a special course which con-
fines itself to the technique of any particular line. As a
rule, success is secured by those people whose acquaintance
with human nature enables them to adapt their professions
to the wants of their fellow beings. Useful information of
all kinds cannot be given children too early, and wise par-
ents will always endeavor to give them the benefit of their
experience.
In the choice of schools, the character of the teachers
under whose instruction children are placed, is of immense
importance. That the people holding these positions
should have taken high degrees at first-class universities
is by no means the only essential; they should possess the
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 49I
gift of teaching, and be in sympathy with their pupils, thus
having the power of influencing them.
Personal influence is one of the highest factors in edu-
cation, and this should be remembered in selecting teach-
ers for very young children, as well as those of a more ad-
vanced age. Early impressions have a lasting effect, and
according as a boy or girl is brought under good or bad
influence in childhood, so the character is formed. — Home
Companioti.
An octogenarian of Chicago has found a unique employ-
ment, which not only gives pleasure to hundreds of chil-
dren, but must also provide an opportunity for old age to
share the joys of childhood. It is the work of making
dolls' furniture, and the following statement will be of in-
terest to all workers with children:
" Memorandum of the charitable institutions in Chicago
to which I have donated my dolly furniture: Chicago
Home for the Friendless, Chicago Orphan Asylum, Chi-
cago Half-orphan Asylum, Chicago Hospital for Women
and Children, Cook County Hospital (Children's Ward),
Maurice Porter Memorial Hospital for Children, Chicago
Home for Dependent Crippled Children, Chicago Waifs'
Mission, Chicago Sanitarium for Sick Children at Lincoln
Park, Bethesda Day Nursery, Margaret Etter Creche (Day
Nursery), Margaret Etter Creche (Day Nursery) branch,
Hull House Mission, Sanitarium at Hinsdale, 111., for poor
sick children and working girls. I have given one hundred
pieces — chairs, bedsteads, cribs, cradles, tables, rocking-
chairs, etc. — to the Home for Dependent Crippled Chil-
dren, for the benefit of their building fund, and in addition
to supplying their playroom. I have given one hundred
pieces to the Waifs' Mission, for the benefit of their build-
ing fund, and in addition to supplying their playroom. All
of my work is made by my own hands. I am now in my
eightieth year, and I took up the work three years ago last
January. I had never had any experience in it before, but
492 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
I hadj to have some occupation; I could not live idle. I
have made to date 2,375 pieces. I never sell anything; my
aim is to reach the poor dependent children in our city,
and to^ make them happy with my little furniture. Re-
spectfully,— Fieman Baldzvi?i, J21'/ Grov eland Ave., CJiicago!'
doll's CRADLE-SONG.
(From the German of Carl Reinecke.)
Sleep, Dolly, sleep;
Softly repose;
Sleep, Dolly, sleep;
Your little eyelids close.
Whilst in school I am trying.
You in bed are lying,
And have all the day
Time enough for play.
Sleep, Dolly, sleep;
Softly repose;
Sleep, Dolly, sleep;
Your little eyelids close.
Hush, my pretty; go to sleep,
While I sing you of the sheep
And the lambs that went to wander
With the goose and widdling, waddling gander.
Sleep, my Dolly, sleep.
[The music for this lullaby is found in Carl Reinecke's "Children's
Songs." A circle of kindergarten children recently sang it at the close
of their doll party, putting the babies to sleep with rare tenderness and
feeling.]
A SPIRITED mothers' MEETING.
If there is one sin of omission by which mothers in par-
ticular, and mankind in general, suffer most, it is the failing
to express their highest and best feelings. Our home club
determined to open our doors and cease to quench the
spirit, by letting it have free scope for one choice hour.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 493
We had sat in state for several years, listening to the theo-
ries and philosophies of education, art, history, etc. We
were full and ready to overflow. We needed a vent which
should be unrestricted by any conventionalities. It was
Washington's Birthday week, and our children were bub-
bling and beaming with the patriotism infused by their
wide-awake kindergartner and teachers. Why could we
not join in the fun, and let our patriotic wings spread once
more, as when we were children? An evening meeting was
called, and the invitation said in parenthesis, "Every mem-
ber is requested to bring her husband and a flag."
On arrival at the club room we found it a canopy of
flags, and the committee in charge in the highest of spirits.
The members arrived with their flags and some husbands.
A spirited march was at once struck on the piano, and two
by two the line was formed. The leaders of the march took
us through various evolutions, in a vigorous and hearty
manner. Now in twos, again in fours, one by one, alter-
nates, right and left, and other simple orders succeeded in
limbering us and loosening the faces and features of our
battalion, which was in many cases more accustomed to
bearing burdens in silence than fighting battles outright.
I do not remember how it happened, but we suddenly
found ourselves in a large circle, hand in hand like children
on a playground. Can you picture the sight? A flag drill
was ordered, and in spite of our long drill in more harden-
ing directions, arms flew up and down, back and forth, car-
rying the inspiring flag hither and thither at the captain's
command. A voice from the circle called during the pause,
"Now for the 'Star-spangled Banner'!" Some of us had
never sung under the fire of such enthusiasm before. The
gentlemen surprised us with their profound basses and in-
spiring tenors, and the piano was forced to hold its own, as
"bombs burst in air." At this climax each grown-up child
of the company brought the right foot down upon the floor
with violent precision. We cared no more for plaster on
the walls, nor for appearances, nor short breaths. The proof
"that our flag was still there," and that our hearts had not
494 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
been entirely overgrown by the underbrush of social cus-
toms, brought an indescribable joy to us all.
And now war stories were in order. Did we sit on
chairs as at a lecture or literary society? No, we all sat on
the floor, with all the grace of the fabled owners of the
magic carpet. Some of us who have never dreamed of be-
ing entertaining told wondrous stories, often interrupting
each other in our eagerness to tell how "that reminds me."
Songs interspersed our chat, and when we all rose to sing
"America," we gave out such pure music as can only come
from the heart afire. x\t the last verse the flags were furled,
and the reverence which ever follows genuine joy and glad-
ness came like a benediction upon us all. Do you think we
will soon forget that memorable 22d of February? — L. W. T.
A NEW YEAR S MOTTO.
I live for those who love me.
For those who know me true,
For the heaven that smiles above me.
And waits my coming, too;
For the right that lacks assistance.
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
For the good that I can do."
THE KINDERGARTEN AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL. — EXTRACT
FROM A LETTER.
A copy of your excellent Kindergarten Magazine came
to my table today, for which please accept thanks. I am in
hearty sympathy with your teachings and with the kinder-
garten movement, which I hope will sweep the country.
We have recently organized our first kindergarten school in
this city, and I hope this will be followed up by more of
them in the near future. There is a great work for the kin-
dergarten, which the graded schools cannot hope to do so
long as we do not receive the children until they are six
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 495
years old. As the public schools are now organized, the
kindergarten is to the public school what physical culture is
to the gymnasium, or cadet drill to the actual duty in the
army.
One important point that is frequently overlooked is the
fact that the children come to us in the public schools after
their characters and habits are largely formed, and changes
come slowly and with great difficulty; whereas the kinder-
garten takes them in the plastic stage, when a sweet-natured,
affectionate teacher can form and fix for life many habits
and tendencies which all acknowledge to be most valuable.
Your Kindergarten Magazine has done a great work in
popularizing the kindergarten, and its influence is far reach-
ing and potent today; yet the only thing needful to the es-
tablishment of such a school in every hamlet of the land is
a general knowledge of its nature and benefits. Hence the
work of your journal is yet boundless. — G. V. Buchanan,
Siipt. city schools, Sedalia, Mo.
TOPICS FOR mothers' MEETINGS.
The following topics have been suggested by a leader in
mothers' clubs, as full of vital interest:
I. What I remember of my childhood; 2. What people
made the deepest impressions upon me as a young woman;
3. What constitutes a model grandparent; 4. How much
contact with nature did we have, and how did it influence
us? 5. What lessons do we learn from our children?
6. How can we best e?tjoy our children now? — H. M.
THE dark.
Of course I'm never quite afraid
To go alone into the dark;
But if the little firefly's spark
Had always bright and steady stayed,
Instead of flashing now and then
Above the grass about the door,
I'm sure I'd walked a little slower.
And felt as brave as grown-up men.
— Forrest Crissey.
496 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
FIVE LITTLE BOYS. — PLAY WITH BABY's TOES.
Five little boys in a trundle-bed
Under a brown leather wall:
They are Jack, Tommy, Tim, and sleepy Ned,
And Cuddle, the wee one of all.
Queer little boys in a queer little bed
Snugly tucked in all the day;
But at six they stretch in the firelight red,
And for half an hour romp and play.
And this one is Jack, so broad and stout;
And Tommy and Tim are twins;
And Ned and Cuddle are glad to get out
When the firelight romp begins.
— Rose Hartzvick Thorpe.
Mrs. Ella Reave Ware, of Woodburn, N. J., in her
daily living with her little family of children has kept a
journal of the good times they have had together, the re-
sults of which are valuable and interesting. It is not a
record of their stages of health, or waist measures, or weight,
but a series of the sweetest experiences and rarest excur-
sions they have enjoyed in common. This is a suggestion
to every mother, as well as to teachers. A school diary, to
which all may contribute, may be a source of great pleasure
and profit.
FIELD NOTES.
Elizabeth Pahner Peabody. — America's first kindergartner passed to
the higher life at the ripe age of ninety years, on January 3, 1894. She
introduced the kindergarten into the United States, and although un-
trained in its philosophy herself, she was so earnest and sincere, and
sent forth the idea with so much power, that she touched the American
educational consciousness; for very soon there was a general awaken-
ing all over our country on the subject of "child culture." In 1867
she went to Germany and studied the philosophy of Froebel with Frau
Froebel and the Baroness von Marenholtz-Biilow, and returned to Bos-
ton to thoroughly revise her work and rewrite her " Kindergarten
Guide." From this time on to her death she gave forth the true thought
on all educational subjects, lecturing, writing, training teachers. She
was a born philanthropist, full to overflowing with kindly thoughts and
feelings for the whole of humanity. If she had known of Froebel dur-
ing his life and had studied with him, her generous enthusiasm would
have known no limit; and it is safe to say, that with the readiness with
which New England has given recognition to her sons and daughters
who are in the advance guard, by this time every public school in New
England would have had its kindergarten. Her mind was not forceful,
but gentle and kindly, and her light a steady one that never wavered
nor dimmed. She instinctively kept her personality in the background,
and so there is little to say of her publicly, outside of her educational
work, which is a living monument to her memory.
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was born in Billerica, Mass., May 16, 1804.
She was the daughter of Nathaniel Peabody, a physician, passed her
early life in Salem, and since 1882 had resided jirincipally in Boston,
where she engaged in teaching and literary pursuits. Most of her writ-
ings were in the line of eciucational work. Her sister Sophia married
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and her sister Mary married Horace Mann.
Miss Peabody, who was the last survivor of her generation, had for
the past decade lived quietly at Jamaica Plains. She was very success-
ful as a teacher, and was one of the first to introduce the kindergarten
system of instruction into the United States. She has been prominent
in numerous works of philanthropy. The funeral was held in Boston on
January 6, at the Church of the Disciples. Rev. Charles G. Ames, pastor
of the church, read a psalm and the kindergarten teachers of the city
chanted " Lead, Kindly Light " and " Suffer Little Children." Upon the
platform were Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, Rev. Mr. Ames, Mrs. Julia Ward
Howe, and Frank Sanborn. Mrs. Cheney first spoke of the charming
49o KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
characteristics of Miss Peabody, and was followed by Mr. Sanborn, who
paid an earnest tribute to the dead woman. Rev. Charles G. Ames read
a poem by Elizabeth Porter Gould and a letter from Rev. Cyrus Bartol,
in which he said that the dead showed all the greater virtues and none
of the lesser vices. In his remarks Mr. Ames said that Miss Peabody
believed that the moment the child smiled recognition upon its mother
and the world that moment its education began. The last word of testi-
mony was spoken by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, who referred to the won-
derful personality of Miss Peabody, who was not only a delightful com-
panion, but who was rich in I'eminiscence, in faith, and in devotion.
After silent prayer the audience viewed the remains, which were taken
to Concord for interment.
E7nma Marwedel. — It is a strange coincidence that four such promi-
nent and zealous educational apostles as Baroness von Marenholtz-Bu-
low, Mrs. Hubbard, Miss Emma Marwedel, and Miss Elizabeth Pea-
body should end their labors within a few months of each other. Each
of these women, well known throughout the educational world and
recognized as a leader in the cause of the "new education," undertook
the same life work and drew her inspiration from the same source, — the
living child, — studying it in the strong light with which Froebel has il-
lumined the inner life of man.
In Europe the Baroness von Marenholtz-Biilow gave to the world the
results of her study and labors; in New England Miss Peabody devoted
the last thirty years of her life to the propagation of Froebel's ideas; in
St. Louis Mrs. Hubbard developed the song and gesture of the kinder-
garten which has done so much to popularize it among the masses of
public school children; on our western coast Miss Marwedel sacrificed
her life in the endeavor to bring to perfection her ideals of education
which would give the child still higher culture of body, mind, and soul.
She received her kindergarten training from Frau Froebel, and at Miss
Peabody's request came to our country and started a kindergarten in
Washington, D. C, in 1872. She went to California in 1875, and settled
in Los Angeles. She refused to establish a kindergarten in connection
with the San Francisco public schools, on the ground that the kindergar-
ten must have harmonious surroundings in order to perfectly carry out
the true idea of a " child garden." In Los Angeles she conducted a free
industrial evening school, having a large number of pupils, the first of
whom was Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin.
In San Francisco she had a building erected which fulfilled her
ideals, for in it was everything to gladden the heart of the child. It was
on a large plot of ground, and under the trees of the "garden" she
taught the children from nature's own book. She gave all her strength
to the teaching of the little ones and the training of teachers. This
training was very thorough and severe, but among her graduates are
some of the best kindergartners of California.
FIELD NOTES. ~499
Miss Marwedel has concentrated much of her work and thought in
her books and charts, " Conscious Motherhood " embodying her psycho-
logical talks to mothers, and the "Connectmg Link," her ideas on the
union of kindergarten and public school, while her "Circular System"
and charts deal with the whole course of education. Through all the
trials of the busy life which her work and study entailed, Miss Mar-
wedel, having ever before her the happiness of the child, spared neither
herself nor her assistants, but with strong will and indomitable courage,
persevered in her aim of firmly establishing in ideal surroundings the
ideal kindergarten of Froebel's desire.
Upon retiring from active teaching, all her time was devoted to per-
fecting her charts, which were sent to the World's Fair. She was ab-
sorbed in giving to educational needs all the aid in her power, and to
this end comfort, strength, and health were subordinated. She lived
alone in Berkeley, and of late years the kindergartners heard little of
her. Incessant work and neglect of health resulted in a fatal disease,
and she was placed in the German Hospital. Some of her former pupils
— kindergartners — visited her there, and it was told me by one of them,
that with characteristic energy she dictated portions of a new work,
which she intended publishing "as soon as she was well," and between
gasps implored them to keep the lamp of Froebel brightly burning and
to be true to the highest ideals. Her pathetic eagerness to live and do,
her feeling that her life work had not been accomplished and that all
her work might be in vain if not properly taken up and developed, af-
fords a great example to those whose lives are before them, and who,
with strength and many advantages, neglect cultivating the spirit which
prompted Miss Marwedel to bear with and suffer all things in her work
for humanity.
On Friday, October 20, 1893, she rested from her labors, after a life
of seventy-five years, most of them spent for others. A movement is on
foot among the kindergartners of California to erect a simple monument
above her grave as a silent testimonial of the appreciation which was
not always voiced during her life, — a tribute to her unflagging zeal,
courage, patience, and utter self-sacrifice. — Kate F. Banning.
A Pen Sketch of Clara Beeson Hubbard. — At the December meeting
of the California Froebel Society, the president of the society read a let-
ter that she had received from Miss Susan V. Beeson, in acknowledg-
ment of the expression of sympathy from the society on the death of her
sister, Mrs. Clara Beeson Hubbard. A quotation from the letter itself
cannot fail to be of interest to all kindergartners: " My sister was about
average height and weight. She had the most beautiful dark eyes,
sometimes sparkling black, at other times a gentle dark, dark brown.
No child from infancy to seven years old but what yielded to their spell,
whether the child was fretful in the street cars, angry with nurse, timid
and afraid to leave mamma, anxious for fun and frolic, or hurt by some
Vol. 6-31
5 00 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
one less able to sympathize with the childish heart and mind. I have
been with her on the street when she was beautifully dressed, on her
way to a reception or to make calls, when she would stop and talk to
any baby or child, black or white, clean or dirty, pretty or ugly, alone
or in the care of mother or nurse. It was impossible for her to pass
without stopping to notice them. When I have seen her look at chil-
dren and change their expression and stop their crying, I have said again
and again: 'Well, my dear, I am glad you did not live in the time of
witches, for you surely would have been burned, though no one could
say you had an evil eye.' She loved color, and all kinds of beautiful
things, and could sing anything she ever heard if there was a marked
melody pervading it. She also played by ear, and that is one of the
reasons she could pitch the songs so well for the children that their lit-
tle voices did not sound shrill and thin. She was light and graceful on
her feet, and always full of fun. One of the great qualities of a kinder-
gartner is enthusiasm and another is power of adaptation."
Some Things the Kindergarteri has and has not Done. — i. It has
stimulated teachers to study the child ; to make the child, not the sub-
ject,\\\& center of consideration; development, not instruction, the pri-
mary object. 2. It has shown how that development may be attained
in each individual in a systematic, orderly, philosophical manner. 3. It
has been an important factor in encouraging personal observation and
investigation in the primary, the grammar, and even the high school.
4. It has practically trained the hand and the eye, by the study of form,
color, etc., and so taken the first step in manual training. 5. As a
moral agent, it has taught each child that he is a being, responsible for
his own actions, not only as they affect him, but as they influence
others. He learns that "no man lives to himself alone"; that each is a
part of a great social whole.
I. It has not recognized its position in a school system, as prelim-
inary to the primary and subsequent school periods. 2. It has there-
fore failed to make a close connection with the primary school, so that
the work is continuous. 3. It has too often been conducted by kinder-
gartners unworthy the name. When our kindergarten training schools
demand that their students shall have as a minimiun a thorough high
school education, before commencing special work, and then devote at
least three years to this work, we shall have made a beginning. 4. It
has too often shown "a slavish adherence to the letter rather than the
spirit of Froebel," and so made the work mechanical, and repressed the
energies which should be allowed free development. There is much
danger that Froebel and the kindergarten will be made the center, not
the child— e2ic\). individual child. 5. The want of a sound foundation of
broad general culture and high education has led to a narrow concep-
tion of Froebelian philosophy, and so to a condemnation of much good
work in primary and higher grades. "The letter killeth." 6. Individ-
FIELD NOTES. 5OI
uality has been enthroned and worshiped until liberty has become
license, and the child fails to learn the first great lesson of an American
citizen, — respect for rightful authority. 7. It has yet to learn that until
the more tormal gifts and occupations are replaced by natural objects
for observation and investigation, its development has not been reached.
Here, however, the best kindergartens, noticeably those of Chicago,
have already made great progress. — Mrs. E. F. Tucker, in Xorthwest
Journal of Education.
Columbus, (9.— Notwithstanding this having been the year of the
World's Fair and of financial panics, the kindergarten cause in Colum-
bus has enjoyed a steady growth and increased public confidence. The
training class numbers about thirty bright young women, and is fortunate
in the personnel oi its faculty. Mrs. L. W. Treat is again director of the
school. Miss Alice E. Tyler, superintendent, has by her quiet enthusi-
asm and sterling qualities endeared herself to all, from the officers of the
association to the tiniest kindergarten tot in Court Alley. Miss Osgood,
teacher of occupations, returned from her summer at Chicago, with in-
creased ardor for her work, and has been giving the young ladies the
benefit of her studies there. Psychology has been so charmingly pre-
sented by Miss Sutherland as to rob Porter and Sully of half their ter-
rors. ' The president of the association and her executive committee
have worked with untiring energy to advance the training class and the
kindergartens. A prosperous kindergarten was opened in the South
Congregational church in September, making ten kindergartens in all
under this organization. After the legislative enactment of last winter
the board of education granted to the association the use of three rooms
in public school buildings, to be furnished rent free and heated and
cleaned. A standing committee on kindergartens was appointed by
President White of the board, to investigate kindergarten work with a
view to adopting it into the schools. Much of the awakened interest in
this city is due to the practical talks of Mrs. L. W. Treat. Mrs. Treat
has spoken by invitation before the board of education and the entire
corps of teachers of the schools, the state legislature, the Ohio State Uni-
versity, and the university club, besides many audiences assembled in
churches and private parlors. These talks have proved irresistible, and
those indifferent or opposed to Froebel's philosophy have invariably
become firm supporters of the " new education." — B. E. IV.
Following is a paragraph from the annual report of the secretary
of the Youngstown (O.) Free Kindergarten Association: "It is proper to
say that the free kindergarten work in Youngstown owes its inception to
Miss Mary S. Morgan, who has been for the last year, and is still, our
valued kindergartner. A graduate of the Chicago training school, she
came to this city, and by the presentation of the work succeeded in in-
teresting a large number of individuals in the matter. Probably no
502 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
philanthropic enterprise in the city has ever been more warmly received
or more willingly supported. As the work could be more effectually
carried on if undertaken systematically, it was thought best to organize,
and the Free Kindergarten Association of Youngstown, auxiliary to the
Women's Educational and Industrial Union, was formed April 12, 1892,
its object being the establishment and maintenance of kindergarten
work in Youngstown, and whatever other work for children may seem
desirable. It is hardly necessary to state that so attractive an institu-
tion is crowded at the beginning of the year; and indeed, we regret to
say that many must be turned away. Only an increase in funds is nec-
essary to an enlargement of the work. The association is ready to es-
tablish fi-ee kindergartens in every poor quarter of the city, whenever
their subscriptions shall warrant it. Miss Morgan has now four assist-
ants under her charge, constituting a training class whose work will be
most valuable to themselves and others in the future."
In a private letter Mr. A. L. Cowley, the music superintendent of the
London board schools, writes as follows: "The following is a summary
of the public schools of England and Wales for the year 1892: Number
of children in inspected schools, 4,262,646; number receiving singing
grants, 4,242,427; number taught by ear, 1,185,183; number taught by
note, 3,057,244; number taught Tonic Sol-fa, 2,660,968; number taught
staff and all other methods, 396,276. Thus seven children pass in Tonic
Sol-fa for one in staff and other systems. Number of departments
(schools) taking Tonic Sol-fa in 1883, 3,871; number in 1891, 16,153. As
to London board schools, the choice of methods is left entirely to the
teachers, and they are perfectly free to teach either the staff or Tonic
Sol-fa notation. All I look for is musical results. We have about
1,200 schools, and all but one teach by the Tonic Sol-fa method. In
your Chicago Exhibition among the school exhibits was a music port-
folio containing the music sang at our last Crystal Palace concert (June
7, 1893). The program included part songs, etc., by Abt, Henry Smart,
Pinsuti, Handel, Mendelssohn, Gounod, and others, and it certainly
tells of good progress when we realize the fact of 5,000 children from
elementary schools singing accurately and with refined expression, " Lift
Thine Eyes," from Mendelssohn's " Elijah," and such like pieces.
When I think of the possibilities of the near future in such a country as
yours, I often wnsh that I could let your people hear those 5,000 voices.
I think they would silence all opposition."
From Cincinnati, O.: The new superintendent of our work. Miss
Pearl Carpenter, from the Kindergarten College, in Chicago, has a large
and enthusiastic training class, divided into first and second year stu-
dents, a director's class, and after the holidays will open on Saturday
mornings " a kindergarten study class," for which there is a general
demand. In addition to the training work, she supervises nine kinder-
FIELD NOTES. 503
gartens. She has also conducted a class in literature, which has been
making a study of Homer. To those who are willing to devote their
mornings to work in the free kindergartens we open our training class
free ot expense. To those who desire the course of instruction, but do
not wish to devote more than one session a week to observation, we
charge forty dollars a term. We have lately received many letters of
inquiry from the South, which seem to show an awakening and great
interest in that direction, which is encouraging. — Annie Laws.
The Chicago Kindergarten Club will meet the first and third Satur-
days of each month, at the usual time, 10.30 o'clock, at No. 10 Van
Buren St., in Froebel Hall. The lecture is being most happily and
profitably filled, followed by free discussion by members of the club.
The Chicago Kindergarten Club has plans in view which will make it
more and more a benefit and growth to its members. There is an in-
formal, social atmosphere to the Saturday Club which not only refreshes
individual workers, but adds to their power of extending the intelligence
of the movement. Kindergartners must ever recognize the direct bene-
fits of fellowship, and the Froebel unions and clubs in our various cities
furnish the opportunity for this growth. All visiting kindergartners are
cordially invited to consider themselves guests of the club, and mem-
bers may secure invitations for friends from any member of the execu-
tive board. The club calendar is supplied on application to the secre-
tary.
A LARGE and beautiful farm at Irvington-on-the-Hudson has been
presented to the Kindergarten and Potted Plant Association of New
York city. The demand is increasing that children be brought into
larger contact with "nature as she is." The work of vacation colonies
that has been so systematically carried out in Germany might well be
repeated in our land, where cities are growing larger and more numer-
ous, and where dooryards are reduced to a minimum. Twenty years
ago a committee of eminent European physicians prescribed the follow-
ing remedy for the cure of weakly, sickly, puny, or even scrofulous and
organically diseased children of the cities: "Nourishing food, pure air,
and energetic exercise out of doors; wholesome atmosphere indoors;
and wherever possible, sea bathing, and visits to the deep forests, high
mountains, or broad fields." Pursuant of these instructions the Vacation
Colonies were established by associations of prominent men and women,
and 137,330 children have been given free and happy summers away
from the limitations of the city. The pamphlet prepared by the patrons
of this work for the Columbian Exposition, shows a most rational and
guarded, but at the same time eminently beneficial work. Copies of the
same can be secured on application, of the editors of this magazine.
The Colorado Springs Kindergarten and Training Class began the
second year of work under the direction of Miss Winifred S. Sadler, in
504 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
September. The close of the first term marks an important era. The
public is aroused to its value both as an educational and philanthropic
work, and everything points to a successful year. The public school
teachers are in full sympathy with the work, several of the primary
teachers having expressed their pleasure in having the kindergarten
children come to them. On account of the hard winter there is only one
kindergarten, but this is full to overflowing. The training classes have
nine young ladies, and several names enrolled for the coming year.
The German system of gymnastics recognizes the living principle in
the normal child, and treats this child not as a bundle of muscles, but as
a psychic organism whose emotional qualities must be recognized as
valuable elements in successful physical development. In other words,
it aims at enlisting the interest of the child, its joyful and active spirit,
among the agencies for the promotion of its physical development, and
endeavors to avoid falling into the error of systematizing the exercises
on purelv physiological grounds. The difference, in a nutshell, between
the Swedish and German systems of gymnastics is this: that the former
has a narrow physiological, the latter a broad, psycho-physiological
basis. — Maximilian P. E. Gfoszmann, Ph. D.
The Colorado State Teachers' Association devoted one session of its
recent annual convention to the discussion of the kindergarten, along
the following topics: Best Preparation for the Work, The Ethical Value
of Kindergarten Training, How to Start a Village Kindergarten, Transi-
tion from Kindergarten to Primary School.
The leading article in this number, "The Kindergarten as a Prepa-
ration for Right Living," was translated from the German of Frau
Schrader by the joint efforts of Miss Mary Lyschinska, of London, and
Miss Amalie Hofer, of the Kindergarten Magazine. The earnest
appeal made by its author, for a broader view of the kindergarten
cause, will tind response in the hea.rts of all self-thinking, earnest stu-
dents of Froebel. The article will be concluded in the March number
of the magazine.
A King's Daughter report, recently published, describes the kin-
dergartens supported by several of their branch societies, which in each
case are named after women prominent in children's aid work. The
secretary adds this word: " I wish that we might see a large number of
kindergartens, each one bearing the name of some other large-hearted
lover of childhood. Good men have had monuments of bronze and
marble raised to their memory. Many good women deserve to have
their names thus honored, and many a good work would feel the inspira-
tion of such women's lives and work."
One of the prettiest Christmas customs is the Norwegian practice of
giving on Christmas day a dinner to the birds. On Christmas morning
every gable, gateway, or barn door is decorated with a sheaf of corn,
FIELD NOTES. 505
fixed on the top of a tall pole, wherefrom the birds shall make their
Christmas dinner.
The Prang Educational Co. sent out from Boston to their fellow pub-
lishers a Christmas card in the form of a handsome all-the-year-round
calendar. The choice colored plates appropriate to each month fairly
represent the art standard of this progressive firm.
Dr. W. N. Hailmann has accepted the position of superintendent
of the government Indian schools, at the appointment of the President
of the United States. This will be a new field for psychologic tests and
data, which Dr. Hailmann will be capable of taking full advantage of,
besides meeting the difficulties of the situation in a broader and better
way because of his past investigations.
Through the courtesy of Francis Herron, foreman of the demolition
of the Brazil and New York State buildings, Miss Josephine C. Locke,
director of drawing in the Chicago public schools, secured the staff or-
namentation for the use and benefit of the schools as models.
The New York State Art Teachers' Association held its second
meeting at the Brooklyn Art Association Hall, January 5 and 6. 1894.
The work of this association includes the visiting of schools and art ex-
hibitions, and the discussion of the same, with a view to the most prac-
tical benefit to be secured to the department of education and art. The
following subjects were presented by prominent educators at this meet-
ing: Aspects of Manual and Art Training, Original Design in Grammar
Grades, Fra Angelico and the Use of Color in the Expression of Purity
in Art, The Relation of Art to General Education, Lesson of the Chi-
cago Exposition as Affecting Manual and Art Education, What should
be Included in a High School Course in Drawing?
Miss Amalie Hofer, editor of the Kindergarten Magazine,
has been in Des Moines and Council Bluffs, la., lecturing on the kin-
dergarten, bringing in many new converts to the cause divine.
Mrs. Anna N. Kendall, of Chicago, addressed the Froebel Society
of St. Louis at the December meeting, on "Art at the World's Fair."
Beginning with a description of the grounds in their original unattract-
iveness, she followed the transformation wrought by man's taste and
skill to its culmination in the magnificent spectacle which has since
challenged the admiration of visitors from all parts of the world. The
spiritual idea of this great undertaking the speaker found expressed in
musical form in the wonderful Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, where
the human soul battling with the difficulties and clamors of life utters
at last its victorious "hymn of joy." In conclusion, a comparison of the
different European schools of art was made, and the assertion that the
people of the West, here in America, were the true art lovers of this
country. — E. Lyon, Secy.
506 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The movement for organizing- educators into societies for the study
of the child is a sign of pedagogical progress. A company of prominent
Chicago educators have organized a club for practical work. It is com-
posed of teachers, philanthropists, professors, and parents. The follow-
ing standing committee have prepared a constitution: Professor L. C.
Monan, of the Chicago University; Mrs. H. M. Wilmarth, of the Wom-
an's Club,; Miss Josephine C. Locke, Mrs. C. K. Sherman, Miss R. S.
Rice, Mrs. J. W. Crouse, and Mr. L. J. Block as chairman. The consti-
tution provides for the appointment of four committees, each of which
was to have charge of one of the following departments: psychology,
history of education, pedagogy, and educational methods. The oppor-
tunity of taking up so varied a line of work when the parent organiza-
tion had for its sole object the study of children was discussed, and the
question was raised as to whether it would be wise, even should the so-
ciety decide to organize independently of Stanley Hall's association, to
go into so many subjects at one time. It was finally decided that the
budding society should not identify itself with the Hall organization, be-
cause of the latter's somewhat limited scope, but should take steps to-
ward consolidating with the institute of education. The committee of
seven will confer with the institute of education to such end, and report
on their success at a meeting January 20. We hope to bring a full ac-
count of this movement in our next number.
Repeated inquiries come from the remoter parts of the great Lone
Star state. A colored kindergarten at Austin has been successful un-
der the direction of Miss Vinnie Leavens, formerly of Chicago, who
writes: "A colored band of King's Daughters have the welfare of our
kindergarten at heart, and with their helping hand it will continue till
June. The parents manifest great interest, and the children are eager,
wide awake, and so interested that I find it a great privilege to be with
them."
Miss Lucy Wheelock has been at Rochester, on errands of kinder-
garten service. We read a naive description of her visit to the children
at the Deaf Mute Institute of that city, in the daily paper of that happy
family. The cordial appreciation of every kindred touch, shown by
these little people, is always an inspiration to the fortunate visitor.
The Annual Register of the University of Chicago consists of 244
pages, double columns; it is really a huge volume. All this is taken up
with stating the courses of study, etc., that may be pursued there. The
general faculty numbers loi. It is doing a wonderful work, broad, gen-
erous, and steadily enlarging. — Educational Journal.
Every spirit makes its own house, and we can give a shrewd guess
from the house to the inhabitant. — Emerson.
FIELD NOTES. 507
The Chicago Kindergarten College leads in the philosophical study
of the higher literature. Every year there is a Literary School held,
either during the Christmas holidays or at the Easter time, at which
some of the best lecturers of the country are always to be found. This
year Goethe is the poet whose works are to be studied. The prepara-
tory lectures have commenced, and every Tuesday afternoon the stu-
dents of the college and many from outside listen to a masterly and in-
terpretative lecture on one of the four great poems of the world, —
"Faust." During Easter week the school will be held.
■The Inter-State School Revieiv of Illinois bears this motto on its
cover page for December, 1893: The source of all earthly blessing, the
source of all love and charity, lies in the great thought that all are
God's children. — Henri Pestalozzi.
The regular annual meeting of the stockholders of the Kindergarten
Literature Company will be held at the business office of the company,
1207 Woman's Temple, February 10, 1894, ai. 2 p. m.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
Through the favor of Frau Henrietta Schrader, of Berlin, we are in
receipt of the new journal published in the interest of Germany's wom-
anhood, titled Die Frau. The editor and publisher of the same is
Helene Lange, whose efforts in behalf of higher education for women
have placed her among the most progressive educators of her country.
Die Frau appears each month, with 150 pages devoted to the'consolidate
interests of the women of the day. It does not dilute its precious col-
umns with fashions or domesticities or romances, adapted to fit woman's
supposed craving for the improbable or the unreasonable. Die Frau
interprets the universal yearnings of womankind as a reaching for that
which is higher — yea, highest. It brings the product of woman's pen,
or the fruit of her various industrial and educational endeavor. Its
keynote sounds one clear-toned purpose,— that of inspiring the women
of the Fatherland to a broader, nobler, and more intelligent life.
"The Contents of Children's Minds on Entering School," by G. Stan-
ley Hall (E. Kellogg & Co., publishers), is a handbook of data collected
by prominent coeducators in the attempt to find out how much children
know and how well they know ordinary things. The little book will
furnish much suggestive matter for discussion and investigation among
school men. Some of the tables of facts are based upon tests made
among 10,000 children, others among one or more hundred. Boys and
girls are recorded separately, as well as children of differing ranks and
stations. Professor Hall has organized the National Society for the
Study of the Child, a sketch of which is given elsewhere in this number.
This handbook will provide teachers and students of children with an
interesting outline of the scope and profit of such associated work.
Price 25 cents.
A TWO-VOLUME edition of Elizabeth Sheppard's novel entitled "Ru-
mour" has been issued, with a fine appreciative introductory note by
Harriet Prescott Spofford. In "Rumour" she brings up vividly before
us those great characters Beethoven and Louis Napoleon; she makes
them as real as though they were before us in the flesh. It is a story
that captivates the mind, whose sentences in places thrill us like strains
of music. The frontispieces are portraits of Beethoven and Louis Na-
poleon respectively. The writer combines biography and musical dis-
cussion in such a charming novel that the adult as well as the child
finds himself carried into all that is good in taste, true as data, and high
in ideal, without realizing it. Price $2.50.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. 5O9
Note fro7n The Cenhiry C^.— The Century Co., 33 E. Seventeenth
St., New York, have just issued " Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar for
1894," containing humorous extracts from Mark Twain's latest story,
"Pudd'nhead Wilson," now appearing in The Century. They offer to
send a copy of the calendar free to anyone who will inclose them a
stamp to pay postage.
Work and Play, published monthly by the Work and Play Company
of Kansas City, Mo., is now in its fifth number. It is filling a place
among the progressive Western primary schools which has long been
open. It consciously aims to provide the best-toned reading and inspir-
ing advice.
hi Press — "Symbolic Education," by Miss Susan E. Blow, a book
which will be hailed with joy by all kindergartners and all who desire to
became true educators, whether in the home or the school, on the farm
or in the shop. It will be reviewed at length in this magazine.
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KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.'.MARCH, 1894.— No. 7-
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN AND THE CHIL-
DREN.
NICO BECH-MEYER.
YESTERDAY my little girl went to the grocer's to
buy eggs. She had just put on a fresh new apron.
iWhen she came back, she said: "Mother, the man
said nothing about my apron, but he looked at it/' '
She imagined that the man, waiting on perhaps ten custom-
ers at once, had in speechless admiration taken in the sight
of her new apron. And to my mind came the words from
Andersen's "The New Frock": "Mother, what will the lit-
tle dogs t^ink when they see me?" It is a child's unlimited
power of transferring its own thought life to other beings;
the difference of age and sex and disposition, development,
and iniluGJice from outward circumstances, are things un-
known to, the child mind. With surprise it feels in itself
hitherto unknown thoughts and feelings growing with every
day, and it immediately concludes that the same thoughts
and feelijigs exist in all that has life.
The Sttle girl who had frightened the chickens went to
the chicken house to beg the old hen's pardon. "This is
sought," the non-comprehending mind says; but Andersen
knows better. The old hen had plainly shown that her feel-
ings were hurt; why should she not, the child from her
standpoint very reasonably thinks, feel softened by having
her pardon asked?
514 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The child is unceasingly laboring to find the connection
between its growing inner life and the outward forms sur-
rounding it, as well as the events happening to it. We
mothers learn this with surprise; we see our own soul life
rising before us, in witnessing the child's struggle to bring
order out of chaos, its eager searching after conclusions
which may explain the riddles.
Thus we are taught by our children that the work which
goes on in us, and which really is our life work, — that of put-
ting facts together to find the true results, of seeking causes
in order to reach conclusions, — that work commenced in us
at a period of which we have no recollection. We learn this
through a daily schooling; but Hans Andersen, who had no
children of his own (and there are things which a child ex-
presses otily to his mother or father), knew it all by intu-
ition. This is his greatness.
A little girl was watching in the darkness by the side of
her doll, which her brothers — the naughty boys! — had set up
high in the branches of the tree. She became afraid in the
darkness, and tried to find the reasons of her fear.
"Oh yes; I laughed at the poor duck who had a piece of
red rag on her leg, because she limped along so funnily. I
could not help laughing, but it is naughty to laugh at ani-
mals, and make fun of them." Then she looked up at the
doll, and said to her: "Did you laugh at the duck, too?"
And it seemed as if the doll shook her head.
A glimpse of Hans Andersen's childhood and youth will
show how the child nature in him was nursed till its main
features took such a growth that they became identified
with the best in his manhood. As a child he had no play-
mates. In the long winter nights he played with his dolls;
during summer he lay on his back under the old gooseberry
bush, the only kind of bush or tree in his mother's garden.
Her old linen apron was drawn as a tent from the bush to
the wall of the house, supported by a broomstick. Day
after day, from here he followed the growth of the fine
leaves, the berries. The sun rays and the insects in the
grass were telling him their tales.
ANDERSEN AND THE CHILDREN. 515
Thus day by day the creative power of unhindered imag-
ination acquired such added force that it became the chief
factor in his later work as author. It could not have been
otherwise; he had to be the fairy-tale teller of the world.
The child who insists that its stick of wood is a horse,
and v/onders how anybody could be ignorant enough to mis-
take it for a cow, — this child understands Andersen fully,
when he leads it into a world where everything is filled with
life. The child pities the snow man when he is melting,
and knows exactly how the Christmas tree is feeling, when,
forgotten and desolate, it is lying in the yard. The child
does not like vague abstractions; everything must be defi-
nitely explained; positive facts must be stated, before the
mind is at rest. Andersen knows this. In speaking about
a very rich man he does not say, in common language, "He
was so rich, so rich!" No: " He was so rich that he could
have paved the street with gold, and would even then have
had enough for a small alley." Any child can understand
this language. In the same story ("The Flying Trunk")
he describes the son who squandered all: " He went to mas-
querade every night, made kites out of five-pound notes, and
threw pieces of gold into the sea, instead of stones, making
ducks and drakes of them." We see a child with wonder-
ing eyes and mouth half open listen, to him while he tells
this. And then the man became poor. "At last he had
nothing left but a pair of slippers, an old dressing-gown,
and four shillings."
When he was fourteen years old Hans Christian Ander-
sen was confirmed, and for the first time a pair of new shoes
was bought for him. As he crossed the church floor the
soles of his shoes squeaked, and this highly pleased him, for
now everyone could tell that they were new. Then he
stopped and prayed God to forgive him his vain thoughts,
and — after that he thought of his shoes again! At sixteen
he wanted to go out into the wide world; that meant to Co-
penhagen to earn a name. His mother reluctantly listened
to this; at last she summoned a wise woman, to ask her
advice. The wise woman looked in her coffee cup, shook
5l6 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
her head wonderingj-ly, and said: "You will live to see the
day when you will see the city of Odense [Andersen's
birthplace] illuminated in honor of your son." And her
prophecy came true.
Hans Christian was allowed to go to Copenhagen. He
desired to go upon the stage, and went to an actress of high
standing to get her protection. Upon reaching the house
he knelt down on the steps, praying for the blessing of God
before entering the house. A servant maid happened to
come out. She took him for a beggar, and gave him a sil-
ver coin. Speechless with surprise and wounded pride, he
tried to hand it back. Could not his new shoes and the
coat just made from his deceased father's overcoat, convince
her that he was no beggar!
This faith in a God who is "good will to all" was Hans
Christian Andersen's true religion. The doctrines of the
churches were nothing to him; the spirit was all. Therefore
he never becomes tedious to the child, even when he
preaches morals and religion. It is the child's own religion
which he presents to him. Where can a more beautiful
picture of children's preparing for rest be found than in his
story of "Bread and Butter"? ^
"I saw a whole troop of little ones, all of one family;
among them was a little sister only four years old, who had
been taught to say ' Our Father' as well as the rest. The
mother sits by her bedside every night to hear her say her
prayers; and after she has said them, she gives her a kiss
and stays by her till she is asleep, which is generally as soon
as her eyes are closed. This evening the two elder chil-
dren were rather inclined to play. One of them hopped
about the room on one leg, and the other stood on a chair,
surrounded by the clothes of all the other children, and said
he was a living statue. The third and fourth were placing
in the drawers the clean linen fresh from the wash, which is
a thing that must be done. The mother sat by the bed of
the youngest and desired the others to be quiet, as their lit-
tle sister was going to. say her prayer." This is true reli-
gion, even to the putting away of the clean clothing.
ANDERSEN AND THE CHILDREN. 517
And Andersen has a happy way of touching the best in
a child, of making it repent of its mistakes and desire to be
again good. In his story about Ing6, who trod upon the
bread, he lets a little girl feel so sorrowful by hearing the
story about Inge's sin, and. her punishment in the world of
ghosts, that she exclaims: "I wish she would repent! I
should be so glad. I would give up my doll and all my
playthings. Poor Inge! it is so dreadful for her!" These
pitying words penetrated to Inge's inmost heart, and
seemed to do her good. It was the first time anyone had
said "Poor Inge!" without saying something about her
faults. Such ideas as unceasing punishment, irretrievable
loss, are far from the child mind, which forever argues that
the bad ones must be better at last, the dead must live again,
the suffering must turn to joy. It is the inborn acknowl-
edgment of life as the ruling factor. And this is the feel-
ing, too, which throws a ray of light even where Andersen
gives vent to the melancholy of his character. Even when
he is most satirical, his good nature lays a healing hand
over the wounds; never is he a condemning, a judging critic.
Hans Christian Andersen lived in a contemplative, phil-
osophical period, which to a large extent has stamped his
work. "The Marsh-King's Daughters" reflects this from
beginning to end. Here he even lets the stork say, "Love
is a life-giver. The highest love produces the highest life."
It strikes us forcibly that he refrains from the descriptive
method of presenting nature. Here is a choice picture in
"The Baby and the Stork":
"By the path through the woodland there were two small
farmhouses. They have low doors; some of the windows
are high and others close to the ground. Mulberry bushes
and whitethorn grow around them. The roof of each house
is overgrown with moss, yellow flowers, and lichen. The
only plants that grow in the garden are cabbages and pota-
toes;, but near the hedge stands a large willow tree, and un-
der it sat a little girl with her eyes fixed upon an old oak
between the two houses. It was only an old withered
trunk, which had been sawn off at the top, and on it a stork
5i8
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
had built its nest. He stood in it, snapping with his beak.
This is a picture so full of life and truth that we sincerely
wish that Andersen hjld given us more of the same kind.
In reading this we -wish that our girls and'"*'boys not only
might get the best of schooling, but that at least one month
out of the twelve, in every child's life, might be lived where
the whitethorn and mosses grow. If Andersen had only
had the narrowness of the streets, the heated pavements in
summer, and the dirty snow in winter, he never would have
been Hans Christian Andersen. The children of the United
States need fairy tales, folk lore, and tales of olden times
more than those of any other nation. They need food for
their imagination and thought life in the midst of all the
practical tendencies of the time, and food far different from
that of the "detective and revolver story." A contempla-
tive nature like Andersen, yet one speaking in the child's
own language, is that with which they should come in touch.
Of this we may be certain: that when we give into our
children's hands Hans Christian Andersen's tales, they will
learn the lesson with which he ends "The Old Grave Stone":
"The beautiful and the good are never forgotten; they live
always in story or in song."
THE KINDERGARTEN AS A PREPARATION FOR
RIGHT LIVING.
II.
FRAU HENRIETTA SCHRADER.
(Translated from the German.)
NOW the pivot of home life is the loving nurture
of each individual, of body and soul alike; and
the basis of such a nurture must necessarily be a
well-regulated household in which the mother
and head of the household is the center of influence. This
does not imply that the head of the household should
always, and under every variety of circumstance, spend the
bulk of her time and strength in the exercise of household
duties; but ignorance of such things and want of skill in
their performance is, to say the least, unnatural in a woman.
Only in as far as she herself masters them will she exercise
a beneficial control over her servants, or exercise any real
supervision over the health and physical development of
those committed to her care.
But the degree of knowledge and practical skill which a
woman may possess in household work has a bearing be-
yond that of her own household; for is not each household
a social cell in a wider social organism? and are they not
both alike regulated by the same economic laws? Is not
the industrial prosperity of a nation much affected by the
economic method of each household? By a proper distri-
bution of her labor and strength, and above all, through the
making her household duties an educational means in the
training and discipline of her children, .will her influence
upon the great outer world be visible. The home surround-
ings of children have to do with the elements which make
up the greater national economy, and especially that which
pertains to social structure. They should have a field in
5^0 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
which to experience and master these problems, and pre-
pare themselves, little by little, to partake of the life of
human citizenship.
To properly fulfill every duty of a small home circle
gives opportunity to each child to contribute in some
degree to the real comfort and value of the same, and at
the same time supplies scientific knowledge, and engenders
ethical power. Here the child is brought close to nature
and industrial pursuits, not from the standpoint of intellec-
tual gain, but through a spontaneous willing in accordance
with ethical law.
It is vital and essential that we should recognize the
care for plants and animals as a part of the household envi-
ronment, in order that the educational opportunities and
advantages of family surroundings may be fully appreci-
ated. It was this for which Pestalozzi so earnestly pleaded.
The natural standard for such an educational environment
in which to develop children through normal activity, is the
German family, which is neither in bondage through great
poverty, nor yet swept from its moorings by an overflow of
riches.
In a large establishment with its many servants, where
parents are pledged to important social duties, the children
should still be granted a small household circle of their
own, with proper attendance, wherein the mother shall take
part as much as possible, and wherein the father may find
a salutary resting place after exhausting service in the busy
world. Let us but once recognize home activities as an im-
portant educational means, and -proper surroundings to
secure the same will be speedily provided.
There is no more harmful movement in modern evolu-
tion than that socialism which demands the dissolution of
the family, or which interferes with the organic necessity of
man's truly living and expressing affection in the human
family. By so doing the very foundation upon which rests
a unified development of the child's soul and body is de-
stroyed, as well as the only means by which his spiritual
power may be completely unfolded, and that environment
PREPARATION FOR RIGHT LIVING. 52I
which is its best nourishment, since it gives scope for spon-
taneous instinctive moral action.
In the face of such statements it is sometimes argued
that machinery is snatching the work out of man's hand, or
is condensing the duties of the household to a minimum
which could scarcely suffice to serve as an educational fac-
tor. There is of course some truth in this. Machinery
releases man more and more from the drudgery of labor;
but however wonderfully it be built, to serve however won-
derful a purpose, no one has yet been found who can
breathe into its wheelwork the spirit, the love, which
prompts care for another, and which satisfies the individual
needs of fellow men. Thus, in spite of all inventions, there
yet remains a remnant of noble duty which the individual
human being must still fulfill. No school, no university,
however high its standard in science or art, can provide
mankind with the ethical nurture which is derived from the
ministering service possible in the management of a house-
hold; for there manufactured products may be specially
adapted to meet the varying needs of its members, whether
young or old, sick or well.
By nature, by instinct, the physically and morally nor-
mal child is eager to be of service to others. But how little
is this impulse within him fostered! The practical educator
seldom sows systematically in this mellow soil, and even
when he makes tentative efforts in this direction, they are
too often unchildlike in form, too often modeled after the
forms of charity prevalent amongst adults. ' Long before
Froebel, Pestalozzi, with all the might and impetus of his
genius, pointed to this great fissure in school life; and Froe-
bel expressed the same thought in his own way in the
"Mother-Play" book.
In this book we find an illustration of "the little gar-
dener," to which he attaches this motto for the mother:
Wouldst thou the childish heart unfold,
Close to the nurture of life him hold.
Wouldst thou prepare him to cherish and love,
Show him the joy which suchiiurture provides.
In what other sphere than that of the family can the
522 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
child find the soil for such growth, unless it be in institu-
tions where the training for family life is made the basic
principle? The child is a complete human being, and he
must exercise his love, his interest, upon wholesome objects
in nature and in human society.
This was Froebel's preeminent purpose in establishing
the kindergarten, as he has clearly shown in his " Mother-
Play" book. A noble, normal family life was the type for
his kindergarten, which in turn was to react upon the fami-
lies sending their children there, and thus to become a liv-
ing model for the true family. It was thus through him
that womankind was awakened to the privileges of spiritual
motherhood, and trained to enter a new sphere of duty,
whether in the family or wider community, in the school or
state.
Pestalozzi gives a typical instance in "Leonard and Ger-
trude" of how woman's special aptitude for exercising a
power we call "spiritual motherhood," makes her entrance
into wider spheres of public life a duty and a beneficent
necessity. When Froebel's "Mother-Play" book is used in
kindergarten training schools only as a picture book for
young children, its depths have been far from understood..
The pictures of this book show conclusively that Froebel
did not confine the education of the instinct to tend and
cherish things to the kindergarten age alone; on the con-
trary, it was to be systematically trained during subsequent
years of childhood and youth. In the picture of "the little
gardener" already referred to, we see, to be sure, only chil-
dren of the kindergarten age; but we have in this fact only
another proof of how deep was his insight into the embry-
onic stages of man's nature, when he could see such impor-
tant issues in the apparently inchoate impulses of the little
child. Moreover we find his education sound and whole-
some in that he does not only arouse the imagination, and
by its agency transplant the child into a world of sympa-
thetic feeling merely, but calls forth simultaneously all the
powers of soul and body, that these may go forth in loving
activity.
PREPARATION FOR RIGHT LIVING. 523
Let US turn to the picture of the "Flower basket," where
Froebel, agreeing fully with Pestalozzi, shows the inner rela-
tion between mother and child as the only true center and
germinal point from which all human relationships radiate.
The mother places the child in his right relationship to
father, to sisters, to servants, to nature itself. The father
of the house, whose business interests prevent his coming so
closely in contact with the family, seeks peace, pleasure,
and happiness in the heart of the home, and here gathers
new forces that he may fulfill the arduous labors of his pro-
fessional life. Infinite is the power held in the hand of
mother and child to inspire him with the joy and peace of
life, and send him out to carry into the great world a por-
tion of that precious store which has been garnered in the
small family circle.
The mother is represented as leading the children to
appreciate the father's faithful labor for them, and to sym-
pathize in their own way with the larger scope of his life.
She directs them to contribute to his comfort in the home
circle. Even the smallest child that can do no definite
work with its hands may still do great things for the father.
It may exert its full strength to fashion a basket which the
mother fills with fresh flowers for his delight. No man can
do more than "pour his whole strength into a loving deed;
therefore this child has accomplished the greatest. With
fine tact Froebel laid down this principle: that a very little
child's first efforts on behalf of others must be closely inter-
twined with his legitimate tastes and likings, so that to
show active sympathy may become a habit of the muscular
organization, as it were.
The too early sundering of duty and impulse must be
avoided, if Schiller's high ideal for humanity is to be real-
ized, little by little; his deep-seated love of the beautiful
shrinks from the cold, categorical imperative of Kant.
Schiller says in his philosophical letters, "Man is a com-
plete being only when at play." By this he sought to ex-
press the thought that man fulfilled God's laws in fullness
and gladness only, even as nature and history have revealed
524 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
them; just as a child in its play, in freedom accomplishes
his undertakings, even though they tax his whole strength
and are wrought in the sweat of his brow.
To our educational methods of today might be attributed
the sad fact registered in the words of the apostle: "The
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." We have systemat-
ically sundered the spirit from the flesh, instead of educat-
ing them together as an indissoluble unity from earliest
infancy. The results in after life are palpable; human
thought soars far beyond the purely physical in every de-
partment of knowledge, but human conduct lags far behind,
is clogged by the grossest egotism; conduct is scarcely rec-
ognized as a faculty requiring systematic training at all, and
children are never .placed under conditions in which they
are instantly called to act in harmony with their best feel-
ings, their clearly won conceptions. Now it is this balance
of faculty, this absolute imity between feeling, intellect, and
will to which Froebel in his "Mutter und Kose-Lieder"
called the attention of mothers; he desired this harmony
to be begun in nursery training as the foundation of all fur-
ther education.
If the "flesh" is to become stronger, if it is to translate
high thoughts into deeds, if man as a whole is to become
spiritualized, and realize the high flights of his highest
ideals, then the tvliole nature must be seized by our methods
of education, and opportunity must be given to exercise
and strengthen the "flesh."
Pestalozzi once said, "Man must ultimately grasp Chris-
tianity not as a doctrine but as an active reality."
Pestalozzi and Froebel therefore rise before me as illu-
minating geniuses, lighting a hitherto dimly outlined path,
and answering the question, " How shall we lead a child
directly into an active Christianity, according to the meas-
ure of its growing strength, that it may work toward the
establishment of sound, true relationships between man and
his fellow men?"
This can and will be accomplished when the great art of
education is more fully understood, when we have an edu-
PREPARATION FOR RIGHT LIVING.
525
cation in thorough harmony with nature. We shall not
solve the problem by the artificial means at present em-
ployed in many kindergartens, or by societies created for
the express purpose of introducing the young to the good
life, but whose efforts seem to me frustrated by the spirit
of self-conscious righteousness which such artificial means
always engender. For German education, at least, the
method above suggested seems to be the most natural one,
to help children to enter into right social relations with
others. It is not, of course, for me to judge of the best
form for another country; but of this I feel confident: let
people once grasp the great principle that education must
lay hold of the zvhole nature of the child, and train him
from infancy to enter into the varied relations of life, then
the methods of application will shape themselves according
to specific needs. Upon this foundation alone can any sys-
tem of instruction be securely reared.
THE KINDERGARTEN AND THE BOSTON
DRAWING DISCUSSION.
PURSUANT of the vital discussions which have
been called forth by the drawing situation of the
Boston public schools, we reprint from the Com-
momvealth a report of the part taken in the same
by the Eastern Kindergarten Association, December I2, 1893.
The opinions of kindergartners on this important subject
are worthy of careful consideration. We believe that the
time has arrived when kindergartners must hold clear con-
victions on all matters pertaining to the public school work
of our country as a whole. They must not limit themselves,
or allow themselves to be limited, to a sub-primary grade.
They must apply their knowledge of the child to the school
work of every grade and in every direction, and become
worthy cooperators all along the line. The report brings,
in substance, a review of the discussion in the Boston school
committee, as 'seen through the eyes of Dr. McDonald, who
represents the progressive minority in the Special Drawing
Committee. We quote direct from the Boston Common-
ivealth :
A meeting was called on Tuesday afternoon, December
12, by the Eastern Kindergarten Association in view of the
great interest in regard to art education in the Boston pub-
lic schools. Miss Mary J. Garland, president of the asso-
ciation, opened the meeting and stated in her clear and
earnest way that the drawing in the kindergarten was a
point on which they felt there was much to be done. It
should be carried out, however, on the general lines of kin-
dergarten principles. She expressed a wish, which she felt
was general, for more light on the matter, and tlie hope that
the spirit of the kindergarten would finally permeate all the
schools. Miss Annie L. Page, one of the directors of the
Kindergarten Association, said that she was using a number
BOSTON DRAWING DISCUSSION. 527
of kinds of drawing; she made use of it in many ways, but
always keeping in mind not only the freedom of the child,
but the wise direction of the child. Miss Page was followed
by Dr. James A. McDonald, the chairman of the Boston
Drawing Committee. Dr. McDonald said, in substance:
"I make no profession to a thorough knowledge of the
kindergarten; but having been identified for many years
with the public schools of Boston, I have had to recognize
that the kindergarten is a part of our public school system.
My observation of kindergarten results has led me to the
conviction that much more should be done than has ever
yet been done to extend the influence of the kindergarten
into the upper grades, and particularly into the instruction
in the primary grades, of the public schools.
" Many of you are perhaps aware that for the past two
years or more the Committee on Drawing has had under
consideration the formulation of a course of study in draw-
ing for the public schools, that should take into account all
the demands upon this branch of education arising from the
establishment of the kindergarten below the primary grades,
the incorporation of manual training in nearly all the grades,
and also from the wide demand that has come for the edu-
cational use of drawing as a means of expression in the
common branches. Added to this is the demand for the
consideration of drawing in its relation to art education, to
the study and the creation of the beautiful throughout all
the grades. In our consideration of this question it became
necessary to institute some pretty broad inquiries in regard
to the various features that it seemed important to incorpo-
rate in the general course of study; and among these in-
quiries— I may say the first among these inquiries that our
committee entered upon, related to the influence of the kin-
dergarten upon the work proposed. Let me give you the
actual wording of the first inquiry that our committee pro-
posed. It is as follows:
"Inquiry i. To what extent can the principles and methods of the
kindergarten be made helpful in the instruction in form study and
drawing and color in the primary schools?
528 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
"This inquiry was sent to all the normal art schools and
to the supervisors of drawing in the principal cities of the
country; and our committee received in response to this in-
quiry a volume of testimony that is of the most^ valuable
character. And if it is borne in mind that this testimony
comes, not from kindergartners, but from the leading art
educators in the country, I think that you, as kindergart-
ners, will be pleased to see in what respect and to what
extent the kindergarten is recognized by those who are
actually at work in directing the art education of the public
schools of the country. I would like to give you all of this
testimony, but it is very voluminous. I will therefore read
only a few of these remarkable responses.
■" First let me call your attention to the testimony from
the three great normal art training schools of the country;
first of all, the testimony of the Massachusetts Normal Art
school, from Miss Field, the normal instructor at this insti-
tution, which is as follows. She says:
"Sense training and the enlistment 'of ^the productive self-activity of
the child, so fundamental In the kindergarten, play an important part in
the study of form and color properly conducted. The distinctively kin-
dergarten method of drawing, though perhaps having its legitimate
uses, does not give opportunity for a most desirable spontaneity and
freedom of expression.
" Next we have that from the director of the Art Depart-
ment of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., Professor Walter
S. Perry. He says:
"The development of the child mind through the utilization of his
creative activities is fundamental in the kindergarten; and it is this
same development through self-activity by objective methods, that is a
necessary feature of instruction in form study, drawing, and color in
primary schools.
"And next is that of Dr. MacAlister, president of Drexel
Institute, Philadelphia. He says:
" The fundamental principle of the kindergarten is the wise direc-
tion and utilization of the self-activity of the child. The methods of
securing this end consist chiefly in training the powers of observation
through his interest in things. Constant effort should be made to give
free expression to his creative powers, and this is best secured through
making, drawing, and language. This study of form, drawing, and
color, which is now finding its way into the primary schools, is the util-
BOSTON DRAWING DISCUSSION. 529
ization of the development and training which the child has obtained in
observation, creation, and expression in the kindergarten. The culti-
vation of the child's perceptive and active powers should be continued
in the primary schools by substantially the same methods as were begun
in the kindergarten.
"Turning now to the directors of drawing in the public
schools, I will quote from the director of drawing in Chi-
cago, Miss Josephine C. Locke:
"The kindergarten methods of clay modeling, paper folding and
cutting I consider absolutely vital to the proper primary instruction, as
they develop the activity of the child, and so compel him to recognize
through actual discovery for himself the difference between planes and
solids. Construction and reproduction of things in some material does
away with the old-fashioned training in technical terms and definitions,
and is preferable, if I apprehend rightly that the object of education is
' the development of the faculties of the child rather than cramming him
with meaningless words for learning's sake. The two cardinal princi-
ples of the kindergarten are: First, the child is a spiritual being made
in the image and likeness of his Creator, and therefore must be given
room to create, like God; second, that education should lead the child
to unity with God, with nature, and himself.
"Next I will quote from the director of drawing at New
Haven, Conn., Miss Stella Skinner. She says:
" The whole subject of form study, drawing, and color, rightly under-
stood and interpreted, is based upon the principles of the kindergarten,
and the kindergarten spirit permeates all the work. The methods are
largely the same, differing only because of a difference in conditions sur-
rounding teachers and pupils in the public schools, and also because of
the limited art training of many kindergartners. One of the most sig-
nificant results of supervision of art instruction in the schools is its in-
fluence upon the work with art material in the kindergarten, bringing it
into closer harmony with art principles.
" Next let me give you the opinion of the director of
drawing at St. Louis, where, as you know, the kindergarten
has for a much longer period than in Boston been recog-
nized as a part of the public school system. This director,
Mrs. T. E. Riley, speaks as follows:
" In so far as the kindergarten methods and principles allow free
scope for the mental activities of the child, unrestrained by any mere
dogmas, in so far as they make the first appeal to the imagination and
the perception of the as yet unawakened infant, they are of inestimable
value to the success of form study and drawing. Indeed, we cannot
estimate too highly the value of the principles of the immortal P^oebel;
Vol. 6-33
530 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
but interpreters of the great master must keep abreast with the progress
of the times, and engraft upon their system everything that is accepted
as good, regardless of the source from which it is obtained.
"The director of drawing of Somerville, Mass., Miss A.
L. Balch, also gives her testimony, which is as follows:
" The principles and methods of the kindergarten, rightly interpreted,
should form the basis of all primary school education. The grade
teacher or supervisor of drawing who understands that the encourage-
ment of the free and spontaneous activities of the child is the first step
in education, is much better fitted for her work than one who lacks this
understanding.
"Just let me quote also the exceptionally fine testimony
from the director of drawing at Allegheny, Pa., Miss Seeg-
miller:
" Froebel's idea of education was that it should be the setting free
of all the powers of the individual. He continually insisted upon the
necessity of spontaneous activity as a means of development. The kin-
dergarten never forgets that education is a growth from within, not a
filling up from without; and the kindergarten ideal is to place the child
in the right conditions, and without force to allow him to grow and de-
velop naturally until he attain the highest possibilities of which his
nature is capable. Froebel, perhaps more fully than any other educator,
recognizes the needs of body, mind, and soul, planning ior their free,
natural, and complete expansion and development. The beneficent
change which within the past few years has been wrought in our public
school instruction, is due largely to the recognition of the worth of the
kindergarten. The earnest advocates of true art education, who have
entered into the profound thought of Froebel, and have recognized the
threefold relationship of the child,— his connection with nature, with the
Creator, and with his fellow men -have done much toward bringing the
work of the kindergarten and the public schools into harmonious re-
lation. Teachers should study the principles, adopt the methods, and
carry the sunny philosophy of the kindergarten fully into their work in
form study, drawing, and color in primary grades.
"This is only a small part of the almost unanimous testi-
mony that came to our committee from the most eminent
directors of art education in the country. And I think that
it is one of the most significant facts in connection with the
kindergarten movement, that there already exists among
those who are directing the art movement in public educa-
tion such a cordial recognition of the kindergarten spirit
and principles as forming the best possible basis for art
BOSTON DRAWIN'G DISCUSSION. 53 1
education in the public schools. You see, therefore, that
the movement for art education in the public schools is in
direct and active sympathy with the kindergarten. I feel
that this is a fact of the utmost significance to public edu-
cation.
" Now I want to call your attention for a moment to
some facts that were brought before our committee, that
have a direct bearing upon both the kindergarten and art
instruction in the Boston schools.
"Our committee found that it was essential that we
should know something of the conditions of things in the
Boston schools as a preliminary to the preparation of a gen-
eral and practical course of art instruction, and accordingly
we sent quite a list of inquiries to the masters of the Boston
schools, asking their opinions in regard to various points.
As kindergartners you will be interested, I think, to know
the sort of inquiries that were sent out with reference to the
instruction in form study and drawing in the primary grades.
Let me give them to you:
"To what extent are form study and color work in your primary
grades developed from the study of models and real things by the pupils?
To what extent are the drawing and color work in the primary grades
the free expression of the pupils' ideas of form and color derived from
such study of objects? To what extent in form study, drawing, and color
is dictation used in the primary grades? If used, state the purpose.
To what extent in this work in the primary grades are mechanical aids
used? If used, state their purpose. To what extent is the primary work
in form, drawing, and color made use of in language work? in number
work? in other primary work? Do your primary teachers sufficiently
understand the educational importance of developing the creative ac-
tivities of the children through the form, modeling, drawing, and color
work? Do they need more assistance to conduct the work satisfactorily?
"I think that you will all recognize that these inquiries
were a pretty effective probe for kindergarten information
, in regard to the work in the primary schools. I may say
here that these inquiries were prepared by three persons
connected with the Boston schools who have the* deepest
interest in the kindergarten as well as in the general educa-
tion of the primary grades.
" Now it was the summing up of the replies to these in-
532 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
quiries that enabled us to see with some degree of definite-
ness the extent to which the kindergarten influence was
permeating those grades, and I presume that many of you
have seen in the minority report the results of these in-
quiries. Let me read them to you:
"Forty responses were made. Of these reports none indicated a full
recognition of the kindergarten spirit and methods in the work; three
indicated the recognition of the kindergarten methods to a large extent;
twelve indicated the recognition of the kindergarten methods to some
extent; eight indicated the recognition of the kindergarten methods to
a slight extent; seventeen indicated practically no recognition of kin-
dergarten methods in the primary instruction in form study and drawing.
"In each case it is probably fair to assume that the
masters' recognition of the desirability of kindergarten prin-
ciples and methods is greater than this reported degree of
practice on the part of the primary teachers. I think you
will all admit that this is not precisely the result we ought
to have here in Boston, after an experience of ten years with
the kindergartens. I confess it was a revelation and a disap-
pointment to me. And the only explanation for this state
of things that was at all satisfactory was that the course of
instruction in form study and drawing and color in the
primary grades had not taken sufficient account of kinder-
garten methods and principles. The spirit of the teachers is
all right, but they want better guidance, and they ^sk for
better guidance.
"The condition of things made it seem impracticable to
base our primary grade instruction in form study and draw-
ing upon a supposed familiarity with kindergarten princi-
ples on the part of the teachers; and so it was thought ad-
visable to reaffirm in the lowest primary grades two of the
fundamental kindergarten principles, — unity in diversity,
which Froebel has so beautifully set forth in the use of the
sphere, cube, and cylinder, and the utilization of the free,
creative activities of the children. Besides this, Froebel's
order of presenting the three type solids is that which con-
forms to a fundamental principle in art, — that of unity in
diversity. This point has been very admirably set forth in
a letter I received a few days since from Miss Constance
BOSTON DRAWING DISCUSSION. 533
Mackenzie of Philadelphia, who spoke before this associa-
tion only a short time ago. She says:
" In Froebel's Second Gift, the kindergarten method of presenting
first the sphere, second the cube, and last the cylinder, is founded upon
the psychological law of offering the strongest possible contrasts, in
order to make deep, lasting, and clear-cut impressions upon the little
child's mind; and furthermore, upon a second law which emphasizes the
importance of guiding a child to a knowledge that even widely con-
trasted objects have important relations to one another and are con-
nected by intervening objects. Thus, while a child at first sees no
similarity between black and white but is able clearly to differentiate
black and white because they are offered in striking contrast, without
the distraction of the connecting series of various grays, it is important,
as a Second Gift, and in order that he may appreciate the dependence
of the last stage of a series upon the first and the intermediates, that
these intermediates shall also be presented to him at the proper time.
He thus, by and by, recognizes that there is no isolated fact or object in
art or nature.
"Now, our committee, having spent two years in earnest
labor in considering the question of what the instruction in
form study and drawing in the Boston schools should be,
have submitted the results of their labors to the board; and
these results are now under consideration by the public. It
is a great pleasure to me, as a member of the committee, to
have this association take the matter of art education in the
schools up for consideration. You have much to contribute
to this movement. It has much to give you. As kinder-
gartners you ought not to rest content to have the influence
of your work confined simply to the kindergarten period.
It should extend through all the grades, and one of the
most potent means of carrying its influence into the upper
grades is through the instruction in form study and draw-
ing. I hope soon to see the day when the instruction in
this branch in the Boston schools shall take its start in the
kindergarten and have its outcome in the upper grades in
the study of the masterpieces of art and industrial work in
our art museum, and permeate with its influence the instruc-
tion in all the grades between. It seems to me that the
instruction in the kindergarten, and the art instruction in
the primary and grammar grades, are two great educational
534 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
influences that should be jonied indissolubly in our Boston
schools."
Mr. H. W. Poor, the assistant director of drawing in the
Boston schools, defended the majority course of study in
drawing; but his acquaintance with kindergarten ideas and
methods was evidently very limited, being based largely
on one recent visit to a kindergarten. He said he did not
wish to criticise, but that the fault seemed to him to be
with the kindergarten itself; that the kindergarten drawing
is disjointed. Mr. Poor himself strongly advocated drawing
of a mechanical character, and made no point of appealing
to imagination or to feeling for beauty.
Miss Wiltse replied to Mr. Poor, and said that the kin-
dergartners were not very ready to speak for themselves;
and as she was not teaching now in a kindergarten, she felt
that she might speak for them. She considered it was un-
fair to judge the kindergarten by a single visit; moreover,-
it should be borne in mind that the work of the kindergar-
ten this year was according to a new and experimental pro-
gram, and could not be taken as wholly representative of
the work.
Miss Lucy .Symonds, a kindergarten trainer, said that
it was wrong to suppose that because kindergartners advo-
cated ffee drawing they did not also give guidance and
direction to children's work. Mrs. Mary Dana Hicks was
called upon by Miss Garland, and expressed her belief that
the principles of the kindergarten furnished the foundations
for art instruction; that harmony through mediation was
the aim in all art work. Mrs. Hannah Johnson Carter gave
some interesting examples of the expression obtained from
children through freedom, and said that while direction is
to be desired, it may be so clothed by imagination and so
touched by the play of fancy as not to be wearisome to the
child. Mrs. H. W. Chapin asked if the testimony given by
Dr. McDonald in relation to the kindergarten and to the
work of the Boston primary schools had been in possession
of all of the drawing committee. Dr. McDonald replied
that it had.
BOSTON DRAWING DISCUSSION.
535
The general spirit of the meeting was evidently in accord
with the kindergarten ideas quoted by Dr. McDonald, and
so characteristic of his minority report. It still remains a
mystery why the kindergarten influence in the school board
should be opposed to the broad and generous kindergarten
spirit that permeates the, minority report. The more public
the discussion of this subject, the better the prospects for
the Boston schools. The subject deserves serious thinking
and conscientious handling.
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The Cook County Normal school has suffered the an-
nual midwinter attack from parties whose pedagogical
standard exists because of ignorance rather than knowledge
of the work of the school, and whose motives are biased,
not by education convictions, but by matters pertaining to
politics, real estate, and personal finances. The liduca-
tional Association of Chicago, comprised of citizens not
otherwise connected with the schools than by their intelli-
gent interest in securing fair play and progressive methods,
took action at a recent meeting, to this effect: that this
body make a full investigation of the Cook County Normal
school and its daily workings, and make public the condi-
tions as they are. The association expressed itself ready to
give cordial support to the normal school, because of its
high and just deserts.
How many teachers in this county, state, or country
have in any wise, directly or indirectly, received help or
profit through the Cook County Normal school? Every
sincere educator who faces the question impersonally, will
acknowledge the benefits which have accrued to education
at large, because of the practical demonstration made under
the direction of Francis W. Parker. The Cook County
Normal school has placed its standards high, and the public
has appreciated the effort to sustain the same. This appre-
ciation is evident because of the hitherto full enrollments in
both the school proper and the normal classes. The public
has demanded normal graduates from this school, and the
several teachers who have imbibed freely of the training
here provided stand today at the head of their professions.
Kindergartners owe much to the Cook County Normal
school. It has fully credited this department with all the
power and place it deserves, and by most conscientious
demonstrations has been able to prove many fundamental
EDITORIAL NOTES. 537
points, in the application of the same to primary and grade
departments. We have come to look to this school as an
irresistible argument that high standards pay and are prac-
ticable. Shall such a plant be destroyed by the animosities
of uninformed parties? Can educators afford to keep still
and let this field for profitable pedagogical harvests be laid
waste?
Efforts and motives, not results and ambitious rivalries,
gauge the values of any common-sense system, whether of
education, ethics, or civics. Whether this school is criti-
cised a success or failure from any other standpoint than
this, will not matter much in the history of pedagogy. The
testimony of good will and earnest conviction on the part of
those who have tasted of its benefits, is not out of place at
this critical time. The same should be forwarded direct to
the faculty of the school, that estimates may be fairly made
and that satisfaction may be given the opposers, to this ef-
fect: viz., that modern educational methods are the result
of progress and intelligent public demand, and are far from
being a mere personal hobby, vanity, or theory.
The second and closing part of the article by Frau
Schrader, of Berlin, — "The Kindergarten a Preparation for
Right Living," — appears in this number. This able and
sound exposition of the larger meaning of the kindergarten
work has called forth much hearty applause from eminent
educators. Dr. Wm. T. Harris writes: "I am particularly
pleased to see the translation of Frau Schrader's article in
your February number. It is a zvonderfiil article." What
does this mean in the growth of the kindergarten work? It
means that a reassertion is found necessary, a restating of
the primal purposes of Froebel's design. The home, the
family, and human conditions are to be redeemed as the
main forces in education. It means that the kindergarten
and the school must not wander into a system of expedient
methods, but must ever and again dip back into the family
for inspiration and growth. It means that real education is
never to be formulated into a finality, but that it is a daily
538 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
readjustment of the individual to the demands of the hu-
man family. It means that principles are the homely,
everyday, everywhere-present things beneath our feet, upon
which and by which all things stand. Kindergartners
should study this article closely, and seek to embody its
meaning in their immediate work.
Professional kindergartners can scarcely forget that our
individual and universal successes depend upon the unity
of action within our own ranks. To the respect in which
the masses hold our practicality and ideals, we must look
for the perpetuation of our work. The past year has proven
that the leaders among Froebel's followers have fully appre-
ciated this fact. All who have found it possible and them-
selves ready to do so, have joined in the great movement
along the lines of business laid out by the Kindergarten
Literature Company. These lines lead out in every direc-
tion, and are assisting in the pushing a knowledge of the
kindergarten into every nook and cranny. Our leaflets, cir-
culars, magazines, and our agents go among all classes of
people, making known the cause and urging its support on
practical grounds. The next few years are the most im-
portant ones for the kindergarten. It is still in the forma-
tive condition. It is now demanding acceptance as a per-
manent and progressive institution. Its prospects for being
accepted and grounded substantially and according to sound
principle are in our own hands for molding, and we must
hold together, work together, urge together, and by so doing
demand recognition for our great cause, as a living, working,
united body. As a legitimately supported organization, not
as a charity, the Kindergarten Literature Company goes for-
ward in this work, and every contribution made toward its
support is an investment for all time, bringing its own re-
turns for the promulgation of this foundation-laying for the
childhood of the race. All kindergartners are invited to
question, suggest, and advise in every part of our work, and
by so doing, join themselves individually or associatedly
to this speedily centralizing force.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's "MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. VII.
The Nursery Finger Plays. — :Make a complete list of all
the songs in the "Mother- Play Book" which might be
classed under this head. Write out a clear statement of
the general purpose of this class of plays. What points are
common to all these plays? What is the larger or deeper
significance of the same? Name all the qualities in these
songs which have been emphasized elsewhere in the book.
Read Froebel's explanations of the individual finger plays,
and state the special purpose of each.
Why have all mothers and parents and children enjoyed
finger plays in one form or another? Why should the fin-
gers take such a prominent part in the early plays of little
children? Is it because these are in a sense the universal
plaything, or because of their constant activity within the
child's range of vision, or because of the self-effort neces-
sary to enjoy the play? Are the fingers a free or a ham-
pered medium of expression?
Psychologists are in endless discussion as to which of
the five senses develop first in little children. Many argue
strongly in behalf of the sense of touch. What have the
fingers to do with this sense? Why do children seize upon
objects, — to feel them merely, or to possess them? Does
the average child use his hands and arms involuntarily in
the effort to express himself? Which is the earlier method
of speech, — gesture or words? Which is the more concrete
form? Why do we use gestures in our kindergarten songs,
stories, and plays?
A kindergartner once made this answer to the above
question: "Because it helps the children to understand the
540 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
thought better." Another said: "Because it is rhythmic
and graceful." Another said: " Because it is more natural.
Children cannot talk without having their whole bodies
help them say what they wish." Which of these answers
was most to the point?
Children's bodies respond to every serious change of
mood. The body and mind reflect each other simultane-
ously. We tell or sing a story, and seek to suit the action
or gesture to the thought. Is it of any consequence to
encourage this cooperation between outer and inner life?
What is the moral value when men's deeds and words cor-
respond?
Of what physical benefit are the simple nursery finger
plays to the children? Would you present "This is the
Mother, Kind and Dear" to the newcomers, the babies, the
slow workers, or the older children? Why? What better
way is there by which to introduce the family relationship
and illustrate the unity of its many members, than this of
the chubby baby hand? Describe the various analogies
between the finger family and the human family.
Where else in nature do we find five parts making a
whole? Name the blossoms, flowers, seeds, and fruits
which repeat this number. Find in the " Education of
Man" what Froebel says of the number "five" as repeated
in nature. Observe children, and watch their instinctive
methods of counting. Why do they use the fingers? Has
the race before them taken advantage of the same natural
resource? Read in various early histories of man, the
growth of number from the hand into calculable mathe-
matics.
Study the following series of songs and their pic-
tures: First, "This is the Mother, Good and Dear";
how does it illustrate the typical family unity? Second,
"Thumbs and Fingers Say Good Morning"; how does this
friendly greeting illustrate unity among contrasting or
varying individuals? Third, "Thumb-a-Plum"; how are
unrelated objects to be classified according to form, quality,
etc.? Fourth, "To the Thumb, Say I One"; how are the
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 54 1
various members of one family, or whole, to maintain each
his personal identity? Fifth, "The F'inger Piano"; is the
possibility of the individual enlarged or diminished when
he fulfills his own proper place relative to the whole? Is
the hum of insects music when heard apart from the sym-
phony of nature? Sixth, "Brothers and Sisters Safe from
Harm"; what is the ultimate benefit of unity in life? Is it
unrest, or repose of spirit?
After a final review of the wonderful illustrations which
accompany these six songs, turn to the "Nursery Finger
Plays," by Emilie Poulsson, or any others with which you
are familiar, and study their inner meanings also. Is the
following a Froebellian finger play, even though it exer-
cises the fingers and thumbs of both hands ; even though it
amuses the children and makes them laugh aloud and cry,
"Say it again"?
Whirl-a-whirl-a-whirl-a-whitI
In the middle was a pit.
Out jumped a rabbit.
This little dog smelt it,
This little dog saw it,
This little dog ran after it,
This little dog caught it,
And this little dog ate it upl
Every mother, nurse, aunt, grandmother, and kinder-
gartner should learn and enjoy the privilege of playing at
least three sets of finger plays with the little children of
their circle, — first for their own sakes, second to the profit
of the children. It is njot always, in all places, nor at all
times, practicable to play games or tell stories; but the
noiseless fingers may with slightest motion properly hold a
child's eye during divine services. The language of activ-
ity is undervalued. Kindergartners are losing valuable
opportunity when they repeatedly ask children to fold
their hands and keep quiet while waiting for other divisions
to get ready. That repose is vital which follows the even-
ing frolic and the bedtime play. It rests like a benediction
upon both the body and soul of the child. — Amalic Hofer.
542 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN's BIRTHDAY.
What man deserves more favors from the memories of
childhood than Hans Andersen? The date of his birthday
is April 2, and more than a passing mention of it should be
made in every school in every land. This poet and prince
among, story-tellers has a peculiar right to share in the red-
letter days of the kindergarten. How many of our best
stories originated with him! How much he has done to
point out to us the manner of true, childlike story-telling!
The frontispiece to this number of the Kindergarten
Magazine is a half-tone reproduction from the new statue
to be erected in Lincoln Park by the Danes of Chicago to
Hans Christian Andersen. The sculptor — Johannes Gelert
— has most effectively seated the calm, genial man, whose
repose and inner beauty of character are typified by the
graceful swan at his side. The man who glorified the
"Ugly Duckling" is hereby glorified in the affection of his
countrymen. This story, which we reproduce as adapted
from the original, is well known to have been intended as a
history of its author's wanderings. Accompanying the
picture is the article, " Hans Christian Andersen and the
Children," by Mrs. Nico Bech-Meyer, a personal friend and
literary contemporary of the subject of her sketch. The
naive and sincere manner in which Mrs. Meyer has pre-
sented the same will be heartily appreciated by our readers.
Visitors at the Danish exhibit at the World's Fair were
deeply interested in the collection of relics and personal
possessions of Hans Andersen, as they were placed in a
reproduction of the simple living room which he occupied
for many years. The many-paned \yindows opened a view
out over the sound which joins the hands of Denmark with
those of her sister Sweden. The well-worn chairs and
couch, the cross-stitch tidy, the crochet table cover, vied
with the hyacinths on the window ledge to make the pic-
ture quaint, while the cases of pictures, letters, books, jour-
nals, and personal keepsakes of Andersen were all eagerly
viewed and studied by the streams of visitors.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 543
On the afternoon of school-children's day, a group of
grade boys and girls crowded up to the Hans Andersen
corner. They were exclaiming now over his "truly silk
hat," now about the old umbrella, and again over the funny
stove and spectacles. An elderly gentleman stepped nearer
and said, with Danish accent: "I knew him well. He is
one of the three greatest men of our country, — Thorwald-
sen the sculptor, Orsted the electrician, and Andersen the
poet. These are a great trio. Do you see the oil paintings
of him on the wall? This one is as I knew him, — a young
fellow with his eyes always looking far off."
"Did he ever have any boys or girls of his own?" asked
one of the children.
"No, he had no family; but yet he was a grandfather
and an uncle to them all. Even the grown-up people
would tease him like children for a story. Yes, he was a
peculiar genius."
The children looked upon the old gentleman with most
friendly eyes, and the coincidence of meeting him there
added fuel to their warming interest in the story-teller who
came from Denmark, but who belongs to the whole world.
Among other objects of interest in the Andersen collection
were the two handsome volumes of American scenery
which were presented to the author by the citizens of
America. A certain letter, sent home to the children when
on his travels, contained graphic illustrations of the scenes
by the way. These were not drawn with pen or pencil, but
cut from scraps of paper with scissors. The animals and
men, represented in crude but dramatic action, called forth
many a hearty laugh from the children who hung over the
fascinating case of keepsakes. The oft-repeated truism
may well have taken its source from the happy experiences
of this man with the youthful heart: "Make a child happy
today, and you make him happy twenty years from now by
the memory of it." A prominent kindergartner has said
recently: "Hans Andersen helped me grow up as I should.
He has been one of the best influences of my life."
Duplicates of the frontispiece picture can be secured on
544 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
application, for framing and hanging in the schoolroom or
home. Will some kindergartner send us as early as possi-
ble a copy of her general program for Hans Andersen's
birthday?—^. H.
THE UGLY DUCKLING.
(Adapted from the original of Hans Christian Andersen).
-It was lovely summer weather in the country, and the
golden corn, the green oats, and the haystacks piled up in
the meadow looked beautiful. It was indeed lovely to walk
about in the country. In a sunny spot stood a pleasant
farmhouse close by a deep river, and from the house down
to the water side grew great burdock leaves, so high that
under the tallest of them a little child could stand upright.
In this cozy place sat a duck on her nest, watching for her
young brood to hatch. At length one shell cracked, and
then another, and from each &^g came a living creature that
lifted its head and cried, "Peep, peep."
"Quack, quack," said the mother; and then they all
quacked as well as they could, and looked about them at
the large green leaves. "How large the world is!" said the
young ducks when they found how much more room they
now had than when they were inside the eggshell. "Do
you think this is the whole world?" said the mother.
"Wait till you have seen the garden; it stretches far beyond
that to the parson's field; but even I have never ventured so
far as that. Are you all out?" she went on, rising. "No;
dear me! the largest o.^^ lies there still;" and she seated
herself again on her nest. At last the large Q:^<^ broke, and
a young one crept forth crying, " Peep, peep." It was very
large and ugly. The duck stared at it and said, " How large
it is! and not at all like the others. I wonder if it is a tur-
key. We shall soon find out, however, when we go to the
water."
On the next day the weather was delightful and the sun
shone brightly; so the mother duck took her young brood
down to the water and jumped in with a splash. "Quack,
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 545
quack," said she. and one after another the little ducklings
jumped in. The water closed over their heads, but they
came up again in an instant and swam about quite prettily,
with their legs paddling under them; and the ugly duckling
was also in the water, swimming with them.
"Oh," said the mother, "that is not a turkey! How well
he uses his legs, and how upright he holds himself! He is
my own child, and he is not so very ugly if you look at him
the right way. Quack, quack; come, use your legs and I will
take you to the farmyard. Let me see how nicely you can
behave. Don't turn in your toes; a well-bred duckling
spreads his feet wide apart, in this way. Now bend your
necks and say 'Quack.' "
The ducklings did as they were bid; but the other ducks
stared and said, "Look; here comes another brood! and
what a queer-looking object one of them is; we don't want
him here."
"Don't," said the mother; "he is not doing any harm."
"Yes, but he is so big and ugly," said the ducks; "and
he must be turned out."
"The others are very pretty children," said an old duck
with a red rag on her leg; "all but that one."
"He is not pretty," said the mother; "but he has very
gentle ways, and swims as well as, or even better than the
others;" and then she stroked his neck and smoothed the
feathers.
"The other ducklings are graceful enough. Now make
yourselves at home," said the old duck.
So they made themselves comfortable; but the poor
duckling who had crept out of his shell last of all, and
looked so ugly, was pecked and pushed about and made fun
of by all the poultry' "He is too big," they all said; and
the turkey cock, who had been born into the world with
spurs, puffed himself up and flew at the duckling so that the
poor little thing did not know where to go, and was quite
unhappy because he was so ugly and laughed at by the
whole farmyard. So it went on from day to day, till it was
worse and worse. The poor duckling was driven about by
546 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
everyone. The ducks pecked him, the chickens beat him,
and the girl who fed the poultry kicked him with her feet.
So at last he ran away, frightening the little birds in the
hedge as he flew over the palings.
"They are afraid of me, too, because I am so ugly," he
said. So he closed his eyes and flew still further, until he
came out on a large moor inhabited by wild ducks. Here
he remained all night, feeling very tired and sorrowful.
In the morning when the wild ducks rose in the air, they
stared at their new comrade. "What sort of a duck are
you?" they all said, coming around him.
He bowed to them and was as polite as he could be; but
he did not reply to their questions. Poor thing! all he wanted
was to lie among the rushes and drink some of the water
on the moor. But he turned away and ran over field and
meadow till a storm arose, and he could hardly go against it.
Toward evening he reached a poor ' little cottage that
seemed ready to fall. The wind blew so hard that the duck-
ling could go no farther. He sat down by the cottage, and
then he noticed that the door was not quite closed, because
one of the hinges had given way. There was a narrow
opening at the bottom, and he crept in and got a shelter for
the night.
A woman, a tomcat, and a hen lived in this cottage. In
the morning when they found the strange visitor the cat be-
gan to purr and the hen to cluck. Now the tomcat was
the master of the house and the hen was the mistress, and
they always said "We and the world"; for they really be-
lieved themselves to be half of the world. The duckling
thought that others might think very differently. But the
hen would not listen to such doubts. "Can you lay eggs?"
she asked. "No." "Then hold your tongue."
"Can you raise your back, or purr, or throw out sparks?"
said the cat. "No." "Then you have no right to speak."
So the duckling sat in a corner feeling very sad, till the
sunshine came into the room through the open door; and
then he began to feel such a great longing for a swim on
the water, that he could not help telling the hen.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 547
"How silly!" said the hen.
" But it is so delightful to swim about on the water, and
to feel it close over your head as you dive down to the bot-
tom."
"Delightful indeed!" said the hen, "ask the cat; do you
think he would like to swim, or let the water close over his-
head?"
"You don't understand me," said the duckling, softly.
"I believe I must go out in the world again."
"Yes, do," said the hen.
So the duckling left the cottage, and soon found the
water on which it could swim and dive; but none of the
other animals came near it, because it was so ugly.
One evening just as the sun set, there came a large flock
of beautiful birds out of the bushes. The duckling had
never seen any like them before. They were swans, and
curved their lovely necks while their white plumage shone.
With a strange cry they spread their beautiful wings, and
flew away to warm countries over the sea. As they mounted
higher and higher in the air, the ugly duckling felt quite a
strange feeling as he watched them. He whirled himself in
the water like a wheel, and stretched out his neck toward
them, and cried so strangely that it frightened himself. He
did not know the names of the beautiful happy birds, or
where they had gone, but he felt toward them as he had
never felt toward any birds in the world. He loved the
beautiful creatures, and wished so that he was as lovely as
they. Poor thing! how gladly would he have lived even
with the ducks had they only been kind!
The winter grew colder and colder. He was obliged to
swim about on the water to keep it from freezing; but every
night the space on which he swam became smaller and
smaller.
It would be too pitiful if I were to tell all the sadness
that came to the little duckling through the long hard win-
ter; but when it had passed, he found himself lying one
morning among the rushes. He felt the warm sun shining,
and heard the lark singing, and saw that all around was beau-
548 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
tiful spring. Then the young bird felt that his wings were
strong, as he flapped them against his sides and rose high in
the air. They bore him onward, till he found himself in a
large garden before he well knew how it happened. The
apple trees were in bloom, and everything looked lovely in
the freshness of early spring. From the bushes near by
came three beautiful white swans, swimming over the smooth
water. The duckling remembered the lovely birds, and was
more strangely happy than ever. He flew to the water and
swam toward the beautiful swans. The moment they saw
the stranger they rushed to meet him with outstretched
wings. "Oh, do not hurt me!" said the poor bird; and he
bent his head down to the surface of the water.
But what did he see in the clear stream below? His
own image; no longer a dark gray bird, ugly and disagree-
able to look at, but a graceful and beautiful swan! To be
born in a duck's nest, in a farmyard, is of no matter to a
bird, if it is hatched from a swan's egg. The swan;^ swam
round and round the newcomer, and stroked his neck as a
welcome.
Into the garden came little children, and threw bread
and cake into the water. "See," cried one, "there is a new
one;" and they ran to their father and mother, shouting,
"There is another swan; a new one has come!" Then they
threw in more bread and cake, and said, "The new one is
the most beautiful of all! he is so young and pretty." And
the old swans bowed their heads before him.
Then he felt quite ashamed, and hid his head under his
wing; for he did not know what to do, he was so happy, and
yet not at all proud. Then he rustled his feathers, curved
his slender neck, and cried joyfully, from the depths of his
heart, "I never dreamed of such happiness as this when I
was an ugly duckling!"
OUR FAVORITE STORIES.
The following stories from Hans Christian Andersen
have been of the greatest enjoyment to me and my chil-
dren;
EVERYDAY PRACTIC|: DEPARTMENT. 549
"The Fir-tree," who was discontented with its lot; who,
in seeking happiness for himself, lost it; but who in the
end found that true joy and happiness is in being of use to
others.
"The Darning Needle," which represents the fall of
pride and the sweetness of humility.
"The Greenies" taught us respect for the smallest
things, at the same time bringing us the most beautiful
natural history lessons.
"The Candles" in simple but clear manner told us of
God's love everywhere.
"The Last Dream of the Old Oak" made a wonderful
impression upon us, with its story of the sturdy oak, and his
desire to share the greatest joys with the tiniest blade of
grass. Participation brings happiness and usefulness and
harmony, since all partake of the same goodness. We have
enjoyed studying the meaning behind these stories, and
find that it is by no means necessary to strain the point,
for their beauty and truth lie near the surface. — H. B.
CAN YOU ANS\VER THESE CANDID QUESTIONS?
Is the First Gift, with its six gay balls, intended to be
used as an instrument to teach color? Would you wish
children to go about with the fact of red standing out of all
proportion to the other facts in the variegated world?
When clapping the hands, flying as birds, or incidentally
gesturing, is it advisable to use the full arm freely and im-
pulsively, or should the arms be cramped and kept close to
the body in an apologetic or timid manner?
When coming to your children with a story, do you look
them full in the face and say, "Now this is a true story," as
much as to say, "This is an exception to the rule"? In pre-
paring a training class or school circular, would you print
in large letters at the top of the page, "This is a genuine
Froebel kindergarten"? If not, why not?
If you have a pleasant, commodious room, well-supplied
cupboards, and a tuned piano, if you have plenty of chil-
550 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
dren and assis-tants, what can prevent you from having a
successful kindergarten? Is the deficiency in yourself? If
so, what is that deficiency? How can you supply it? Is it
better to conceal your mistakes for pride's sake, or look
them fairly in the, face for the children's sake?
In Miss J.'s kindergarten the children are marched to and
from their places in immaculate order. Miss J. counts four
while they stand, turn, draw out the chairs, and sit down.
Hands are folded before every change of conversation or
work. Do you think this excess of regulation is according
to the "natural method"? Do you think it would look un-
tidy if the children let their arms fall naturally to their
sides, laps, or tables? Do you think the unity of action is
broken when the matter of sitting down or standing up is
made a military drill? Is there on any plane of life such a
thing as too much red tape, or a tendency to give non-es-
sentials more attention than essentials?
If you had a slowly growing plant which refused to bud
would you take it by the stalk and pull it ever so little? or
would you irrigate and sun it? How about the stupid boy
in the kindergarten or school or home?
Do you believe that the best method by which children
may make known their wants or readiness to give an answer
is the raising of the hand and impatient wriggling of the
same before your eyes until you can attend them? Is this
peculiarly necessary in a kindergarten or primary depart-
ment? Have you ever tried calling for different children's
answers by a nod of the head or glance of the eye or men-
tion of the individual child's name?
When a child gives a natural answer to a question is it
wise to emphasize the same by saying, "That's right, John-
nie," or "That's very nice, Mary"? Would not a cordial
"Yes, indeed; I think so too," put you and the child on an
equal footing, and possibly avoid the impression which
some school children have, that "teacher" is the judge su-
preme?
Why do you use the phrase "kindergarten teacher','?
Do the two words together mean more or less than "kin-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 55 1
dergartner" or "teacher"? Is a kindergartner an instructor?
Is a kindergartner an educator? Is it well to allow the
children to say repeatedly, "Teacher, teacher"? If not,
what shall they say? Is it proper to say "kindergarten
school"?
You have a mothers' meeting; the ladies are eager to
learn all you can tell them. You talk about the beauty and
the wonder of the kindergarten work. You tell how it
makes children harmonious and happy and wide awake. A
mother asks you, "How does it do all this?" Is it enough
to praise the method, to prove its efficacy? or must you
show the daily ways and means and reasons for pursuing
said method? A mother who once listened to a beautiful
essay on "Every Mother a Kindergartner," said with evi-
dent displeasure: "They all talk that way. She did not tell
us how to get it or why to do it." Have you ever been able
to give such an inquirer a satisfactory answer?
Do you ever make mistakes in methods or discipline?
Do you tell your assistants that you are not infallible, and
that the kindergartner's power is her capacity for growth?
Is it well to say to assistants, as to children, "We will work
this out together; let us grow together"? Has your train-
ing teacher reached a standstill, or does she ever expect to
come to the end of her growth? Why should you? Do
you remember the days when you experienced growing
pains? Can you reach a higher stage of growth in your
kindergarten work without pains, effort, study, and sincere
practice of what you believe right preaching?
Did you ever make a list of the practical questions you
would like to ask prominent kindergartners if you had an
opportunity to do so? Did you put on paper what you
mean by practical questions, as opposed to theoretical ques-
tions? What are the most vital points of the so-called kin-
dergarten system? What is the most essential factor in a
kindersfarten?
552 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
THE TYPICAL PROGRAM APPLIED TO THE DAILY VICISSITUDE.
V.
NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER WORK.— SEEDS, HARVESTS, THANKS-
GIVING.
We take "^or our motto, "Great oaks from little acorns
grow." The children have received many impressions from
our work and talk of the past month. Trees and plant life
interest them, and they feel something of that wonderful
power of nature to cause a great tree to grow from a seed
or kernel planted in the ground. Everything that grows
comes from seeds, the children think. "Yes, seeds or bulbs
in the first place."
Said Maurice, "The seeds don't stay there after the
roots and plants have grown a good deal, but go (are ab-
sorbed) into the plant." Maurice is a most thoughtful,
observing child, and carries on his investigations at home
as well as in the kindergarten. He has good reflective as
well as perceptive capacity.
The children have noticed how the flowers are leaving
us. "Did the flowers bloom only for themselves and us?"
The children are puzzled. (We refer to a talk of last year
about the mother plants' seed cradles, and how under every
flower is a little receptacle which is so carefully guarded.)
"Why does the mother flower (or plant) take care of little
seed children?"
"Why," said Maurice, "there have to be little seed chil-
dren, so that they will grow up and we can have plants
next year."
"And is it true even of the seeds of all the trees and
plants and flowers and grass, and all the fruit and vege-
tables and grains that are now being gathered in?"
"Yes, everything," say the children.
They bring seeds of the kinds of fruit which they
brought last month, when they were interested in these,
relative to the tree or plant upon which they grew. We
make for our seeds envelopes out of our folding paper,
similar to those sold at the florists. The children know that
many kinds of seeds are collected from the seed vessels of
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 5^3
plants, and labeled and ^aved for next spring's planting.
We label ours and put them away, for we all hope to be
here next spring to plant our seeds in the large yard of our
kindergarten. The children can name many of the seeds
they bring, and we cut pictures of the larger ones, such as
orange, date, pumpkin, and melon seeds, using paper simi-
lar in color.
On the circle we represent different kinds of seeds that
Mr. Wind takes flying through the air to find homes, — milk-
weed and the seeds of the winged maple. The children
know of quite another kind of seeds, which they call
"stickers." They attach themselves to people's clothing,
and are carried some distance away, for it would not do
for the seed children to make their homes too close to-
gether; they might not find room enough to grow.
From a study of seeds we pass to corn. The growth
and use of the corn proved doubly interesting after our
visit to the -World's Fair, where there was so much that
was suggestive in its rich profusion and display in the Illi-
nois, Washington, and Iowa State buildings. (See June
Kindergarten Magazine, "Iowa State Building.") The
cereals, such as wheat, oats, and rye, furnished work and
play for a happy week. We had a large sheaf of each in
the kindergarten, and one day on the circle each child was
given a bag, which was afterwards filled with grain and tied
up. The children then took them to the commission mer-
chant (kindergartner), who weighed each farmer's load and
marked upon the bag the weight (ascertained by apothe-
cary's scales). The farmers then took their grain to the
mill to be ground. Our song was of "The Mill" (Poulsson
book). Previous to this we had sown, grown, reaped,
bound, thrashed, and ground our wheat and corn in circle
play. One day we called in horses and wagons and carted
our grain to the barn. Another day we brought it to town
to the granary, and after being carried by the grain elevator
into the bins, through the pipes, some of it was sent by
train to Chicago, which we found was the great grain cen-
ter of our country. As Lexington farmers of the bluegrass,
554 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
we hoped to secure better prices there for wheat, oats, and
corn.
We have merged almost imperceptibly from seeds to
corn and grain. The harvesting of the grain leads us to the
Thanksgiving thought, in the sense of kinship to nature.
From early times different peoples have rejoiced and given
thanks for bountiful harvests. In the historic sense we
have emphasized the relationship of the Indians to the life
of our earliest white settlers. The kindness and good will
of the aborigines to the strangers in their land has been
talked of, and in the sand table the log houses of the Puri-
tans were put up close by the wigwams of friendly tribes
(wigwams made of manilla paper cones, with curled strips
at the top for smoke). Our great-great-grandfathers and
mothers were represented by the children with Second-gift
beads on sticks, while the Indians were the same, with
the addition of fringed paper headdresses. On Thanks-
giving day our girls wore the Puritan, caps and the boys
wide collars (all of white tissue paper), while those chil-
dren who were Indians wore tufts of turkey feathers upon
their heads, and around their necks strings of the Second-
gift beads. Hand shakings and friendly expressions of
neighborly courtesy passed between the "early settlers"
and the good Indians. All sat down together at tables
spread with the fruits of the harvest. Corn and the grains
decorated the room, while at the plates were bunches of
wheat heads, oats, or rye, as souvenirs of the day. We
have had a delightful month of work, and this is the cul-
mination; but soon Indians, Puritans, and all the "early
settlers" must bid one another a regretful adieu, to meet
again next Monday with happy greetings, "Children and
teachers here."
In our subject work of the kindergarten we find that the
children are learning to think for themselves, and that they
are connecting events and incidents in their own lives with
nature and history. They are more clearly feeling their
own relationship with all that lives, and the practical de-
tails of certain training of the senses and mind, preparatory
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 555
to entering the next grade of the public school, are not lost
sight of, but are made a vital part of the work. We have
noticed that a wholesome "letting alone," so far as direct
appeal or help goes, while at the same time an ever-present
sympathy and encouragement are given, will best bring out
the latent activity in the seemingly dull and inert. In the
development of the senses we have found hearing to be
less acute than touch and sight, which are exercised to in-
vestigate all new objects. The sense of smell seems to be
still less acute. While touch and taste are naturally the
most active of the young child's senses, taste and sight
would appear to need more careful training than the others,
because they are more easily led astray. Who has not
noticed the want of perception of the laws of perspective
in children's drawings? The imaginations of children, so
far at least as the substance world is concerned, are largely
a literal image-taking of impressions about them, without
the relatedness of the same to other objects. The chief
objection to many "fairy" stories is that they make still
more literal the child's unscientific thoughts, and encourage
this tendency, which comes from not feeling and seeing the
true relations of the planes of the spiritual, mental, and
material worlds, and which indeed is what we are all put
here to learn, but which only a rare few, like Christ himself,
have truly perceived. — Laura P. Charles^ Lexington^ Ky.
THE TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM.
V.
CONSTRUCTION OF SCALE, THE STANDARD SCALE AND RHYTHM.
The subject of last month will be further discussed in
this issue.
The first interval of the scale presented in the teaching
of this method is the fifth (tonic to dominant); but that
which comes next in order, and which is the first observed
when the names of the tones (d, m, s) are written, is the
third; the reason for which, as previously stated, being, that
this interval is consonant, appealing more strongly to the
556 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
mind and to the emotions, and therefore more easily under-
stood than the second, which is dissonant.*
In the construction of the scale, however, the second is
the first interval defined; albeit there is the prime or unison,
which, more correctly speaking, is not an interval (that
term referring to the difference in pitch between any two
tones), still is tabulated as such.
It is obvious that the different kinds of steps will pro-
duce seconds differing in degree, the greater and smaller
steps being designated as major seconds and the little steps
as minor seconds. It is not necessary to distinguish be-
tween the greater and the smaller steps, as both are consid-
ered major intervals.
In the scale are found the following intervals: primes,
seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, and octaves.
The seconds, thirds, sixths, and sevenths form the two
classes of intervals called "major" and "minor." The other
four belong to the class called "perfect." It is thought un-
advisable by many to apply the terms "major" and "minor"
to the seconds, as there are the more accurate distinctions
of "greater," "smaller" and "little" steps, and also the
terms "tone" and "semitone." As in the teaching of mu-
sic generally, however, these intervals are named as above,
we include them here.
The foregoing brings us to the subject of "inversion" of
intervals, which explains the reason for the distinctions of
"major," "minor," and "perfect." Inverted, major intervals
become minor, and vice versa ; perfect intervals inverted
remain perfect. Seconds and thirds which contain no little
steps are major, those which contain one little step are
minor. Sixths and sevenths which contain one little step
are major and those which contain two little steps are
minor.
TJie Standard Scale. — Any conceivable sound can be
taken as a key-tone around which the other tones necessary
to form the scale may be grouped. For the Sake of con-
*The kindergartnerwill find the same principle applied here as in the use of the Sec-
ond Gift, where the contrasting forms of sphere and cube are presented first, and the
mediating cylinder afterwards.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 557
venience, a common scale is taken for a standard, which
is founded on a certain tone called C, which occurs in the
higher part of a man's voice and in the lower part of a
woman's voice. The names of the tones of this the stand-
ard scale are DOH, C; RAY, D; ME, E; FAH, F; SOH,
G; LAH, A, and TE, B. The alphabetical names, there-
fore, are the pitch names of these tones. The terms
"sharp" and "flat" are applied to the pitch names when
further distinctions are necessary. In the next article this
scale, with six others most closely related to it, will be
shown.
We will return to the subject of measure and rhythm.
We have remarked that time is subordinate to words. Let
us examine the following simple round, set to the first tones
which are presented.
KEY F. ROUND IN THREE PARTS.
I I 'tl* 1 M
\-d : d \ d : — \ in : in \m : — S
Day has gone, night is come,
1 ^ : s \ s : s \ d -.did : — !|
Now eacli loved one wel - cojiie liome.
The measure is two-pulse and the form is primary. Notice
the agreement between the pulses and the words; how the
strong pulses occur on the prominent words, the connecting
words and the weak pulses coming together. Where the
pauses occur in the phrasing we find continued tones with
only enough time allowed between for the taking of breath,
indicated by the dagger at the end of certain measures.
Notice also the application of mental effect of tones. The
first two phrases state two facts, for the expression of which
the tones rt' and ;;« are appropriate; the following phrase is
a call with assonance appropriately expressed by the tones s
and d. This simple illustration and its explanation will suf-
fice for the next round, in three-pulse measure, secondary
form:
KEY G. ROUND IN FOUR PARTS.
\
d:^
sing a
*
■.d 5i : — ^1
- loud, your
in \ — : m
voi - ces
d : —
raise,
■.in s : 111
To join in
: d \ s : in : d
i the cho - rus of
grate - ful
d:-
p raise
558 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Reading- over the following we find that in the last part
the syllables follow each other more quickly than in the
former phrases, requiring more tones in the pulses at that
place in the tune than have so far been used.
KEY C. ROUND IN FOUR PARTS.
\ m : m\r : — \ d : f/i \s : —
Come, let's laugh, come, let's sing:,
I ' I !l
I </i :^i I t.d^:r^.t\ d^ ■.s\s : —\
Win - ter shall as merry be as Spring.
The measure here used is four-pulse, because the movement
Is rather quick, and too many strong pulses would tend to
make it heavier than would be agreeable to the ear. In this
we have the pulse divided into two parts, — two balf-pulse
tones, — the tone name for which is taa-tai.
Let us look at the following familiar lines:
KEY G.
\ d : d •.r\t\: — .d : r \ in ■.ni:f\7n : — .r : d \
My conn - try! 'tis of thee. Sweet land of lib - er - ty.
The first pulse of the first and third measures is prolonged
into the second pulse because of the stress laid on the sylla-
bles to which they belong, producing the time division
called taa-aa-tai.
In the next we find that more tones arc necessary in the
pulse because of the quick succession of the syllables in cer-
tain places.
KEY D.
\Sy s. s, s^ : s . m \ d^ . / : .y Ij
Merrily the cuck - oo in the vale
The time name for this division is ta/a tc fe. In words like
"merrily," "cheerily," "joyfully," etc., when the next sylla-
ble is not short, so that only three tones would be required
in the pulse, as pronounced naturally, the following would
be the division of the pulse:
KEY F.
\r, r. r : I . s \ s. m : s \
Merrily o"er the flee - cy snow
The time name for this division is ta fa tai. This need not
be confined to the syllables of one word, as there might be
two words for this division of the pulse, as in the third
measure of the following:
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 559
KEY E.
\.d, r\m. m -.m.r, m\f.f:f.f, in\r, r .r : r. .y | w. ||
With a ha ha ha, and a ho ho ho, 'Tis a jolly old world, you know.
The name for the time division of the second pulse in meas-
ures one and two, one longer and two shorter syllables, is
taa te fe.
In the chorus of "Tramp, tramp, tramp," if we read the
first line in a measured style we find the time division in the
last two pulses of certain measures will be as follows,
KEY B-FLAT.
I ni : in \ >n., r : d., l,\ s, : — \ d : — ]|
producing the division called taa fe, a three-quarter-pulse
tone and a quarter-pulse tone. This is called the march
rhythm. In representing the sound of the anvil the silent
pulse may be illustrated, the stroke of the anvil occurring on
the strong pulse, and the silent pulse be the preparation for
the next stroke, as follows:
\d : \d : \^
The silent pulse division may also be shorter a half or a
quarter pulse.
Enough has been given to make the subject of time
clear; and although many other illustrations might be shown
of further divisions of the pulse, the above will suffice. But
that it may not be thought the divisions of the pulse as
above are arbitrary, we will add that they may be applied to
but one syllable. The words here used would, when read
naturally, require the divisions as herein given. — Emma A.
Lord.
ASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN.
V.
THE GOBLINS IN MARS.
What fun the goblins had, as they hastened on their way
to Mars! A friendly comet had helped them on the way,
and as they landed on the planet it whisked off again, prom-
ising to return promptly the next day at the same hour, and
take them home again. But it was many days before the
goblins were ready to leave Mars. They declared they had
560 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
never enjoyed themselves so much in their lives. They
found snow at the north and south pole, with which they
pelted each other in a lively game of snowball. They also
wandered here and there, finding oceans and islands, and
trees and flowers, just as on our earth. They saw many
beautiful red flowers growing on the mountains, and the
earth was red, instead of brown as it usually is on our earth.
They were also delighted to find the different places they
had seen marked on a map of Mars, which they had seen
on earth. They found the continents named after the great
astronomers,— Secchi, Herschel, Newton, Galileo, and oth-
ers. One little goblin was nearly blown into the sea, from
the little island called "Windy Land." As for "Misty
Land," near the south pole, it was the cause of sad trouble
among six little goblins who had wandered there. It was
so foggy they could not find their way, and they kept on
going round and round till the mist cleared away, and they
saw "Cassini Land" in the distance. Some of the goblins
were brave enough to go to "Storm Land" and "Fog
Land"; but at night they all went to "Shadow Land," which
you will find on the map, near the south pole. The goblins
enjoyed their trip to Mars very much, and were amused at
the two little moons of Mars, called Deimos and Phobos.
Sometimes these moons seemed to be playing at hide and
seek with Mars. Sometimes they would peep out, first at
one side and then at the other, and they were not at all like
the moon which goes round our earth.
The inner moon is only fifteen miles across, and it races
across the heavens three times every day, — that is, once
every seven hours and thirty-nine minutes. The goblins
noticed that the day on Mars is only half an hour or so
longer than the day on our earth. They laughed at the idea
of that little moon appearing three times a day, and won-
dered what people on earth would say to that. The outer
moon, which is only about ten miles across, takes thirty
hours and eighteen minutes to complete its trip; but even
that is quick when you compare it with our moon, which
takes no less than twenty-seven days in going round the
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. s6l
earth. But the goblins noticed that the moons of Mars are
much nearer to the planet than the moon is to our earth,
and also that they go round much more quickly.
But whilst the goblins were amusing themselves watch-
ing the little moons travel across the sky, the comet — who
had become a little impatient, as he had come by for them
twice already — told them that unless they came just then,
and in a hurry too, he would go off without them. As the
goblins knew he meant what he said, and that being Comet
Encke it would be three and a half years before he would
pass that way again, they hurried off the planet. They were
soon all merrily sailing across the sky on the comet's tail,
and when they reached home they borrowed all the tele-
scopes they could find, and stole the rest, so that they might
take a good long look at Mars and his two dear little
moons. — Mary Proctor.
IMPORTANT ITEMS.
By omission on the part of a correspondent to credit in
full the author of the verses " How the Frost Man Works,"
published in the January number, the same were credited to
J. McA. The writer of these familiar lines is Hannah Gould.
Will kindergartners kindly take notice of this error, and
■avojd similar mistakes, by giving author's name, or other-
wise indicating the ownership of all quotations made by
them, even when words and lines have been altered.
The Chicago Art Gallery is free to the public every
Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. Kindergartners and
teachers should remember the regular Wednesday free lec-
ture course.
Vol. 6-35
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
CONFERENCES OVER HOME MATTERS.
Our baby is one year old, and enjoys beyond all other pleasure that
of making ugly guttural sounds. He can speak some words, but de-
lights in testing his throat with these physical noises.
Have }'ou ever .said "Don't" to him when he made these
noises? Are you quite sure that he is not testing you as
well as his throat? Is it not possible that you have drawn
his attention to that which is of no vital importance, and
would have been forgotten soon? If you could appear not
to notice it, and would often repeat in his presence some
musical, rhythmical, "catchy" sounds, — always beautiful, of
course,— or if you would appeal through them to his love
of play and fun, we dare say that his attention would be
diverted, he would begin to imitate, and would soon forget
his past sins.
It seems natural for the human race to want to do for-
bidden things. Perhaps it is the divine, inborn freedom of
soul asserting itself, not knowing yet, even in its grown-up
stage, how to make the "terrible choice" when it would
seem to leave life actionless.
When the great Teacher came he gave us something
positively good to do and positively beautiful to think, in-
stead of saying "Thou shalt not." Why should he not be
our pattern in this also?
I am a kindergartner, and am asked every day by mothers and
fathers, What are the results of the kindergarten system? Do you
think the children will learn to read as fast as public school children?
Are you not afraid they will dislike school after so much fancy play?
How do you know that they will ever care for books at all, or be willing
to make effort for what they should acquire?
Every enthusiastic, fearless, progressive worker along
any line will sympathize with you. We all meet this same
sort of people, but we must not forget that they are needed.
mothers' department. 563
too; their doubting, patience-trying conservatism helps to
keep things balanced. No wordy arguments are going to
convert them. Our only way is to continue to do good,
honest, true work, and thereby prove that there are noble,
lasting, much-to-be-desired results. We must not let our-
selves grow discouraged, but give our work a perspective
by placing it up against eternity.
Fathers and mothers are not altogether to blame when
one considers the sort of work that has been, and still is,
— in spots, — masquerading under the name of "kindergar-
ten." Neither are they entirely blameless; for there is
now every opportunity for knowing what the "system" is,
through the almost countless books that are being written
on childhood and its development; through the magazines
especially devoted to kindergarten work; and through lec-
turers in the field for the very purpose of enlightening the
benighted in this matter. We are glad to say that many
people are taking pains to inform themselves along these
lines, and they know that the kindergarten was instituted
for the nursery, and, until we have reached a truer, simpler
idea of civilization, for the little ones still too young to
enter school; and furthermore, that orderly, playful think-
ing, "playful work and workful play," at this stage of the
children's existence, is an absolute necessity to healthful,
symmetrical growth; and because it is natural, can in no
wise so weaken their intellects that they will not compare
favorably with their companions who have thought and
played lawlessly, who have never dreamed of working and
of loving their work, as kindergarten children invariably
do. This class of people knows what the system aims at
and is trying to accomplish, and therefore places the blame
where it rightly belongs, when their children "do not care
to make an effort for what they should acquire": either
upon the person who calls herself a kindergartner, and who,
it may be, has yet to learn the first principles; upon the
school-teacher, who is blind and ignorant as to the stage of
development reached by her pupils, and fails to supply
their immediate needs; or, with great humility of spirit,
564 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
upon themselves, who perhaps gave with their own blood
or by their own example a tendency to dullness and indo-
lence.
I have four children; they ask thousands of questions every day.
It is a physical impossibility to answer them all. How shall I compro-
mise?
With gratefulness of heart answer as patiently and with
as much interest as possible, 2, few hundreds of the questions,
for these are the sign of healthy, normal, growing minds,
which must be fed if they continue to grow; and not only
fed, but exercised; to which end, take the first question the
answer to which the child can find himself, and with your
interest and patient love to encourage him, set him to
search it out. The result will be fewer questions, perhaps,
but greater power to think, and greater love for the thing
thought out. It may be because our childish questions
were not answered that some of us have lost that divine
curiosity which searches out the wonderful secrets of God
and adds untold richness, beauty, and sweetness to life.
Our children have the misfortune of having unmusical parents. We
have furnished them a music box, but they are more interested in see-
ing it revolve than in listening to the melodies. How can we help them
to avoid the same misfortune we have? Would you recommend a bird?
Professor Preyer says that no child whose organ of
hearing is normal is born unmusical; but that, in order to
develop his musical ear or his musical sense, he must have
early opportunity to distinguish tones; that heed must be
early paid to his hearing, and he must also have exercise
for his vocal chords. The young child, especially he whose
love for music is not strengthened in some degree by he-
redity, is not able to distinguish tones in complicated har-
monies like those of the music box; he needs simple, cer-
tain, definite sounds. Furthermore, he needs to create
these sovmds himself, by his voice, if possible, or from
some musical instrument. It is not only the action of the
revolving cylinders that captivates your children; it is also
the mystery of the sound-producing motion; they arc un-
consciously searching for the cause. Let them be the
mothers' department. 565
cause. Give them to begin with, good, fine-toned instru-
ments,— a triangle, drum, metalaphone, or small cornet, —
upon which they can not only produce different tones, but
learn to make rhythmical sounds. Rhythm is the very
heart throb of music, and a sense of time the first step
toward its development. Not a little pleasure, to girls as
well as boys, may be gotten out of learning how to handle
the drumsticks correctly, and in "keeping time" with good
piano music. Rhythmical motions will greatly help, march-
ing and gymnastic exercises, also songs and poems with
strongly marked rhythm; in fact, whatever will arouse *a)id
control the emotional nature. But the greatest need of all
is patience, infinite, long-suffering patience on your part,
and faith that the beautiful task which you have set for
yourselves is achievable.
Can a mother get a fair idea of kindergarten work by correspond-
ence?
This cry comes to us with increasing and heart-breaking
frequency; heart-breaking, because of the utter futility of
such help as could be given or received through corre-
spondence. As well might one expect to gain a "fair idea"
of medicine, surgery, or electrical engineering through let-
ter writing. And yet we would not have you think it all
hopeless for women who have awakened to the fact that
they have to mother minds, hearts, and souls, as well as
bodies. Mothers, kindergartners, and teachers, philoso-
phers, scientists, and poets are giving us the wealth of their
minds and experiences in books, papers, and magazines.
These, put through the crucible of your own thought and
experience, could be turned to vast account for your chil-
dren. Two or three mothers could plan to meet each other
once a week to study and read together; clubs for child
study are slowly growing in favor, and kindergartners are
constantly going out to help them. There is a truer, more
practical, heart-to-heart help in work of this kind than
could possibly be received through the mails. — Frances E.
Newton.
566 RlNDERGARtEN MAGAZINE.
A PLEA FOR children's PETS.
To love and to cherish animals is a passionate desire of
childhood. So intense is the longing for them that boys,
as they grow out of childhood, with masculine persistency
and ingenuity nearly always manage to possess themselves
of some kind of a pet, in spite of parental opposition,
household inconvenience, lack of money, and every other
opposing force. The girls, being more docile, give it up
early in life, and the little children are of course helpless in
the hands of their elders.
Blind indeed have we been in opposing this instinctively
earnest desire of children for something "alive" to love and
cherish. We want our children to be loving, gentle, tender,
and sympathetic. God wants them to be so too, and so he
has given them this passionate love of animals and this
intense desire to have them for their own. Go back to
your own childhood and think of your own yearnings; of
how you wished you could be allowed to shelter and care
for some stray kitten or ill-used dog; of your delight if you
caught and could cherish some wounded bird; of the rap-
ture that would have been yours if some one had given you
a lamb, a rabbit, or a chicken for your very own.
The children are philosophical enough to accept the
inevitable, and when mother says, as the question comes up
of a pigeon, a mother cat, or some white mice, "I simply
cannot have it! It is out of the question! I have no time
to take care that you take care of a pet," — they give it up,
and stifle useless longings as best they can. And so we
deliberately shut a door that God himself has opened, and
cut off one of the grandest life opportunities for teaching
our children to love and to cherish those that need their care.
All honor to the many mothers who do allow pets! All
honor to my own mother, who in her time has harbored
cats, dogs, birds, coons, foxes, rabbits, white mice, chickens,
pigeons, turtles, fish, and even a deer! Most people, how-
ever, are keenly conscious all through their lives of many
an unsatisfied longing for pets in childhood, that was not
gratified.
mothers' department. 567
There is a sympathy, a companionship, and an under-
standing between children and animals that few grown per-
sons retain. What is more perfect than the absolute com-
prehension of each other that exists between a boy and his
dog? And here, in behalf of the girls, let me put in a plea
for that longed-for nuisance the mother cat. Nothing
gives a little child more delight than a cat and kittens.
Nowhere else can better life lessons of love and sympathy
be learned; and I can assure m.y readers, from years of ex-
perience, that to keep such a family is not as much trouble
as one unaccustomed to it would suppose. I know well
that the supply of cats greatly exceeds the demand, and
that a mother cat will have kittens at least twice a year.
It is a good plan to keep two, and dispatch the rest quietly
and quickly with a little chloroform. No one likes to chlo-
roform kittens, but it seems to me preferable to depriving a
child of hours of pleasure and the opportunities for growth
that come with the care of a family. Let the children have
pets, as many as you can endure, but at least one. Why is
it that the man who is fond of animals is apt to be gentle,
humane, and considerate, if not that his love for dumb
creatures fostered these very virtues?
We say every Sunday, "I believe in God, the Father
almighty"; and yet when brought face to face with a divine
instinct of childhood that involves any self-sacrifice we
practically say, "Perhaps this instinct is not divine. It
may be just a childish notion. Perhaps God implanted it
for no especial reason. At any rate it is too much trouble
to follow its leadings. My child can get his development
some other way. I can invent methods of teaching him
that will probably be just as good as his heavenly Father's
plan, and not half the trouble!" And so in answer to the
boy's pleading for a dog we give him a toy or a book; we
turn the sick kitten out of doors, and give the little girl a
piece of cake to dry the tears of loving sympathy, and so
lay up for ourselves the "Inasmuch as ye did it not unto
one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me."
One beautiful series of lessons could be taught by a pair
568 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of canaries rearing their young. The wild birds are an
unceasing pleasure, and can be made an unceasing study by
mother and child; but the perfectly legitimate and child-
like longing, which grows out of a necessity, to see at close
range, to handle and to examine, will be best gratified by
the possession of the caged birds, which the child can
directly cherish and love.
It would not occur to many mothers to get a chicken or
two for the babies to enjoy; but this would be an infinitely
better gift than man}- an expensive toy. But the toy
involves no trouble, and some one must take care of live
things, or see that some one else does. "Too much trouble"
is the dead wall against which preachers of Froebel's doc-
trine are constantly running.
Froebel says that all life which the child sees outside of
himself reveals the life within him, and helps him to con-
sciousness of self. " Know thyself" has been the cry of wise
men from earliest days. Why should we strive, of all things,
to know ourselves? We are the image and likeness of God.
In knowing ourselves, our capacities and powers, we learn
more of God and humanity. We see "through a glass
darkly" as yet; perhaps when we really know ourselves we
shall "see face to face."
Know then, O thoughtful mother, that whenever your
child looks with eager interest on the animal life about him,
he is growing in the self-knowledge necessary to noblest liv-
ing. But Goethe tells us that only in activity can we find
ourselves; and so your child must do, as well as think and
see. Give him but the longed-for opportunity, and he will
make active the loving sympathy that is part of the God
life in him. — Katherinc Beebe.
mothers' study classes: kindergartners must meet the
DEMAND.
Every mail brings inquiries about mothers' classes and
kindergarten study circles. Below are a few practical siig-
gestions in response to numerous questions from both kin-
dergartners and mothers:
mothers' department. 569
Keep your study circle informal- but vital. Do not teach
your parents, but share zvitli them what you have also been
given. Talk more about the (*ommon-sense principles
which support the entire scheme, rather than too much
about the gifts or occupations. Kindergartners need a
standard kept before them to do good work. See to it that
you are a good type to keep before your parents and stu-
dents.
Study the "Mother-Play Book." It is not a sealed mys-
tery. It is natural philosophy. Read Froebel rather than
too many commentaries on his books. He will give you a
subject for every month in the year, which shall in no case
be divorced from the principle behind it.
It is not essential to conduct your class as others do, but
as you best can. Kindergartners, as other mortals, are
prone to imitate methods. Let them study and dig out
fundamental points. It is wise and well to have some out-
side strong w^orker come into your midst for a few days.
Take care to secure one who will inspire and infuse a new
impulse into your sturdy class.
There is a universal hunger for better methods and
greater wisdom on the part of parents of young children.
You have only to give of your abundance, not to teach a
system.
Do not try to teach the mothers what you know, but
talk over with them their children and your efforts. Spend
one meeting in telling about your morning's work, or your
week's work, explaining why you do thus and so. Read to
them a helpful article, or talk to them from your own heart
as to the methods and principles of Froebel. Take one
afternoon for songs and games. Teach the mothers the
ball games, or lead a march and play games, as you would
in the kindergarten. This part of the work must be kept
informal and sincere.
The Child-Garden will be a helpful supplement in the
home, and also the Mothers' Department of the Kinder-
garten Magazine. On page 687 of the May (1893) num-
ber, is a detailed account of how to organize such a class;
570 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
also suggestions for topics for discussion, in the February
(1894) magazine. Miss Susan Blow's new book on "Sym-
bolic Education" is emptiatically a book for mothers, and
makes an excellent text-book for systematic study (price
^1.50).
Inexperienced kindergartners cannot lecture before a
study class, nor is it fair for such to announce themselves
prepared to "give advice" to parents. Do such good work
in your kindergartens that fathers and mothers come inquir-
ing of your methods. Tell them then what you do and why
you do it. In time this telling will take better form and
carry more force. Prove every statement you make.
It is as impossible for a stranger to make a final plan of
work for a class of parents, as for a kindergarten of children
whom she has never seen. You can decide upon general
points, but not upon the details of carrying them out.
Many mothers organize the study circles themselves, and
combine an informal social time, including refreshments,
with the reading and practical conversation.
PARENTS, INSTRUCT YOURSELVES AS TO RELIABLE EDUCA-
TIONAL METHODS.
(AN OPEN LETTER.)
Chicago, February, iSg^.
Dear Misses H : Your problem, as to what is best for
the children after they leave the kindergarten, is a most
vital one. It is a common one too, asked by every thought-
ful parent as the child stands at the threshold of the school-
room, confronted by a moral atmosphere and mental pabu-
lum for the most part totally different from that to which
he has been accustomed. Of course the methods employed
in school and kindergarten must be different, for the child
has outgrown that stage of life in which he was mainly
dominated by his affections, and he has come to a period
where investigation, a love of knowing what and how things
are, is the incentive to action. So we as parents may well
inquire. What are the schools offering to our children?
You ask if there has ever come to my knowledge a sin-
gle school "which really builds on kindergarten founda-
tions." Before answering you, I should want to be quite sure
that we are of one mind as to the essentials of Froebel's
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 571
system. Briefly, .they might be stated thus: ist, That the
aim of the kindergarten is to put the child into sympathetic
relation to those laws which govern man and nature, by giv-
ing to him in childlike fashion, opportunity to know and
obey these laws/;w/z the heart; 2d, To lead the child to ex-
press his thought and feeling concerning these truths, in an
objective form, thereby fostering a deeper insight and form-
ing habits of service to others.
Now if you assent to these statements, I believe that we
have a true basis not only for the kindergarten but for the
after education of our children; and so I come back to your
question, "Do I know of any school which utilizes the work
of the kindergarten as a definite basis for later training?" I
have never seen a school which in its theory and practice so
fully recognizes the idea of the development of the whole
being of the child, as does the curriculum of the Cook
County Normal school, under Colonel F. W. Parker and his
unified corps of teachers. How do I know that this school
stands for and actually realizes this great principle? Be-
cause, when we were looking for the best place to educate
our children, I went into the school and worked there for
nearly five years without salary, to test the genuineness of
its theory and practice, and to know exactly what my chil-
dren's school life was. Not only did I see the application
of true psychologic and pedagogic principles, but the trend
that was given the pupils' work in science, in literature, in
art studies, the persistent effort to unify and concentrate
energy in the acquirement of that knowledge which is of
most worth, made the whole work pulsate with new possibil-
ities and with new life to teacher and pupil.
I do not say that the work was or (even now^) is fault-
less; but I do say that child nature is studied there, and its
needs are met, as I have not known them to be in any
school I have known; and this I say after nearly thirty
years' experience in teaching, and after visiting repeatedly
the best schools in the States and in Canada.
Of course there are many people who criticise the school
and its methods; but an extended acquaintance among its
pupils convinces me that they are wide awake, well bal-
anced, intelligent boys and girls, with tastes that will lead
them into right paths of life. What more can you ask of a
school? Children trained on the basis of the principles as
applied here, are ;/^/ going to be found among the "incapa-
bles," that immense army which has so taxed the wisdom
of all who have this winter had anything to do in the lines
572 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of work for the unemployed. These normal students have,
a physical basis for work, which few schools in the country
provide for; for the "physical culture" has a most impor-
tant place in the course of study, and manual training. is
deemed indispensable.
But it is on the training of teachers that Colonel Par-
ker lays the greatest stress. The professional training class
enrolls a large body of young women — and a few men —
who are most earnest in their study and loyal to true princi-
ples of education. The faculty presents a corps of men and
women with whom it is a privilege to have fellowship, so
large and broad and devoted are they in their profession.
Here, indeed, teaching is recognized as an art, and not a
trade; and these people one and all have the true devotion
that one always finds in artists. This spirit, with which
Colonel Parker always infuses his teachers, is recognized by
men like R. H. Quick, of London; Hughes, superintendent
of Toronto schools; Sheldon, of the Oswego Normal school;
MacAllister, of the Drexel Institute (Philadelphia); Moul-
ton, of our own university; Stanley Hall, of Clark Univer-
sity; Butler, of Columbia College; and scores of other
prominent educators, although that august body of politi-
cians, the Board of Commissioners of Cook County, have
not as yet been impressed with it; and more than that, have
recommended that the entire manual trainihg department
be cut off and all salaries be reduced.
Such are some of the conditions under which the school
labors. Yet in spite of all the effort made to overthrow the
school through a lack of appreciation of its work, or through
selfish partisanship or political interests, the work was never
so good as it is today; and you might look a long, long time
without finding elsewhere the opportunity for the growth of
mind, body, and spirit that is here offered; and I feel sure
that you who know so well how to estimate the real value
of a school founded on pedagogical principles, will not be
disappointed. Yours, — A. H. P.
LITTLE FINGER-EYES.
Did you ever see a little boy or girl who had eyes in his
fingers? just a little eye in the end of each finger?
That would make ten eyes, you see, counting the thumbs
with the fingers. Two eyes in his face besides, would alto-
gether make twelve; a dozen eyes! Just think how queer
that would be.
mothers' department. 573
Why no; of course you never saw such a funny child as
that. I guess nobody*ever did. What made me think of
asking you such a question? Just this: because there are
so many little boys and girls who always are saying, "Let
me see!" "I want to see too!" "I can't see it at all that
way!" "Let me see!" "Let me see!"
Now, though they have beautiful bright eyes, — some
brown, blue, gray, or black, — they really do not seem to see
with them alone. The eyes do not seem to be enough for
them.
Up come their little hands with their ten fingers, to toucli,
take, and handle. Does not that make it seem as though
they wanted to see with their fingers? And that made the
question come, " Have little boys and girls eyes in their fin-
gers?"
Johnny Jumble was that kind of a boy; perhaps you
never knew him, though }'ou may have seen some one like
him. He just wanted to lay hands or fingers on everything,
before he was satisfied he had seen it.
So many, many times it had been said to him, "Don't
touch," "Mustn't take," "Just look at it; do not handle;"
but he never seemed to remember all this at all.
One day he had a lesson that he felt, and after that he
did remember. This is th& way it was:
His big brother Leslie was studying natural history, and
had collected all kinds of bugs, bees, butterflies, and some
worms to examine. He had them all in a glass dish with a
cover, and he left them one day on a low table for a little
while, saying to Johnny, "You take care of those, will you,
till I come back. You may look at them, but do not let
anyone touch them."
"All right, Leslie; I'll take care of them," he said; and
of course he meant to; but his finger-eyes got in his way.
After watching them a little while he thought he must
see — that is, feel — a certain butterfly; so he lifted the cover
just a wee bit; but oh, my! what a sting he felt from a little
bee that wanted to get out.
He dropped the cover so hard that the dish broke, and
574 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the whole company swarmed about him; the bees stung
him, the grasshoppers jumped on him, the worms crawled
on him, and he — well, he screamed loudly enough for the
whole family to come hurrying in to see what was the matter
with him.
They helped him out of his trouble, but everyone said,
"You shouldn't have touched. Couldn't you see without
touching?"
Yes, he can see now without touching. He just looks
with the two eyes in his face, and keeps his fingers all
locked in each other, and he hopes you will do the same.---
Hal Owen. -
THE GIFT.
I peeped within a cradle.
And what saw I there?
A bit of heaven's treasure,
A mother's answered prayer.
I knelt beside the cradle;
My heart was filled with love;
I thanked the heavenly Father
For this blessing from above.
— Helen Douglas Saxe. ^
HOW THE KINDERGARTEN IS MISUNDERSTOOD.
Too little is known or understood of the kindergarten
system by the majority of people. Many think of it as "a
nice place for the children to pass their time." and "it saves
mothers so much." They seem to think it a place where
the little folks are taught to make ornamental little things
and frisk and frolic about, with little or no significance
attached to it; a sort of a creche, as it were, for children too
young for school. If they only knew the deep significance
and grand truths on which the system is based, they would
be able to more fully appreciate the kindergarten system.
I have heard one mother declare it "a shame" that the
kindergarten should take up the largest room in the school.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 575
when the other rooms were so crowded; little did she think
that the most beautiful part of a child's nature is developed
and brought out by this beautiful method. It took Froebel
the best part of his life^to perfect his ideas, and he has left
them behind, hoping that they be rightly interpreted. In
St. Louis it has reached perfection. The system is based
on principles with which we are all familiar, and those who
undertake to train the little ones by this method must
thoroughly appreciate this fact, and be in sympathy with
the interests of their little pupils. The kindergarten sys-
tem is adapted to home use, particularly the songs and
games and the play with the gifts and the simpler occupa-
tions. Armed with a book . of "songs and .games," and
some outline pictures and colored zephyrs, many a rainy
day may be pleasantly spent. Not a small part do the
gestures play in the songs and games; gesture is a language
in itself. By a little thought and study one might pick out
appropriate gestures, and the child enjoys it more if he can
use his hands instead of keeping them folded. For in-
stance, m singing of the shoemaker, he can imitate the
sewing, the nailing, and drawing the waxed ends through;
and he will more fully appreciate it by imagining himself,
for the time being, a shoemaker. Children are naturally
iro&ginative, and to play too much upon their imaginations
is wrong too; for it makes things afterwards unreal, and will
cause doubt to arise. Care should be taken to draw the
line at the proper place. Nothing is gained by harping on
one string; but by reconciling one thing to another, a
happy result is obtained. The very name of "kinder-
garten" is a happy one, for it is a child's garden in every
sense, for their minds and their bodies. It appeals to the
threefold nature of the child, and charms his love for the
beautiful, and elevates his mind; in fact, it creeps upon him
unconsciously, and he' finds himself able to express his
thoughts with the material in the kindergarten. The child
is made familiar with form, size, color, number, sound, and
motion; for these are the points emphasized in the kin-
dergarten. It teaches children to treat one another with
576 KINDERGARTEN- MAGAZINE.
gentleness, and to have respect for each other's feelings.
It is the corner stone of education, for it appeals to the
manifold nature of the little child. — .S. C. V.
THE FIVE LITTLE SHEEP.
Five little sheep stood under a tree.
The first one said, "Come, follow me."
The second one said, " Let's keep in line."
The third one said, "That will be fine!"
The fourth one sai,d, "We're coming fast."
The fifth one said, " I am the last."
So after their leader they ran, until
They came to the fence, where they all stood still.
This may. be used as a finger play. One hand held ver-
tically, with the fingers spread, will represent the tree; the
fingers of the other hand represent the sheep standing be-
low. As each sheep is mentioned one finger is raised from
the table, until all five are up. During the last two lines
the first hand represents the fence, by resting on the side
and little finger. Then let the sheep scamper across the
table until they come to the fence — "where they all stand
still."
When played in the ring this makes quite a merry game,
and one that the children will enter into with great interest.
One child may represent the tree, and five others ma5^jDe
the sheep. The expression given by each child to what is
said by the special sheep he represents, adds to the reality
and fun. The remaining children, with hands on each oth-
er's shoulders, form the fence around the field, which stops
the little sheep from running beyond their proper limits. —
Virginia B.Jacobs.
FIELD NOTES.
Dcs Moines, la. — A call to spend a week among the kindergart-
ners of this City of the Golden Dome, was most heartily accepted by the
editor of the Kindergarten Magazine. The statement has been
frequently made, that Des Moines was the second city in the Union to
put the kindergartens in her public schools. St. Louis preceded her.
This progression was to be expected of a state which stands second to
none in its degree of school excellence. To be a graduate of an Iowa
high school is sufficient proof of sound preparation to admit a student
to his choice of several prominent eastern colleges. Iowa school build-
ings are, as a rule, proportionate in style and quality to the standards up-
held within their walls.
At Des Moines I found large, commodious buildings, well ordered
and well filled with a robust, animated, but studious rising generation.
There may have been all grades and degrees of " problems " behind
those orderly desks, but my impression was that here was a set of schools
inhabited by that normal, equalized class of children which one does not
find in the larger, more teeming cities. Des Moines has her hills and
valleys, her streams and native acre lots, her neighborhood oaks and sod-
ded school yards, where another city I have in mind has only miles of
pavement and many-storied buildings, and a pushing humanity. Was it
merely a fancy that these gramnier and grade schools were different from
others I had seen? Women principals are in the majority here, and it was
my privilege, in one hillside schoolhouse, to sit down to an informal noon-
hour lunch, in which the superintendent of the schools, the lady princi-
pal, her grade teachers and kindergartners all participated. This dem-
onstration of the unity of interests and efforts on the part of an entire
school was made in the cheery kindergarten room, where the younger
brothers and sisters of the "upstairs" boys and girls had passed a fruit-
ful morning.
The kindergartens of Des Moines are as much a fixed fact in the
mind of the community as are the high schools or grammer grades.
Each succeeding generation of children looks forward to going to kin-
dergarten, and is prepared by this anticipation for its methods and
manners of working.
As early as 1882 the board of education of Des Moines provided one
year of kindergarten training for all children from five to six years old.
As in all similar instances, this result was brought about through private
vigor and effort. Mrs. Lucy B. Collins was the pioneer kindergartner,
who through sincere conviction and demonstration of the work aroused
sufficient public interest to demand public school kindergartens. She
Vol. 6-36
578 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
was selected as supervisor of these infant schools, and served until 1893.
Mrs. Collins trained most of the kindergartners, who are still today in
the Des Moines service. In September, 1892, a Froebel association was
organized, which includes in its membership the superintendents of
North and West Des Moines schools, primary teachers, principals, and
men and women prominent in educational and literary lines. There are
today twelve public kindergartens in the two school districts of North
and West Des Moines, and the same provision is being demanded for all
the city schools. Miss Emma B. Fletcher is the present supervisor of
the West Des Moines schools, while the brave handful of kindergartners
of the North division are superintending each other, with the cordial
support of their district superintendent, Mr. O. E. Smith. They have
my sincerest congratulations upon their effort to make the best of the
situation, which a heavily burdened school board cannot at present re-
lieve. Even though the city of Des Moines be divided into many dis-
tricts by dint of politics, real-estate values, or school regulations, an
invaluable union is being formed by the united efforts of the kinder-
gartners of the city, who are influencing the children, not merely of one
or another school district, but of a coming generation. — Ainalie Hofer.
Midwinter Visit to Boston. — Miss Mary May, of Chicago, has just
returned from a month ot delights among eastern kindergartners. She
speaks of her Boston visit as a series of red-letter days. She writes:
"Under the friendly escort of Miss Emilie Poulsson, I met Miss Gar-
land and Miss Weston, and afterwards enjoyed her own hospitality on
Chestnut street; also attended Miss Fisher's Thursday class. Here
the program was being given out for the following week's work, to
those in charge of public kindergartens. The same plan of work is
followed by all of the public school kindergartners. There seems to be
quite a difference of opinion among the local kindergartners as to the
wisdom and feasibility of this plan. All I can say is, that it seems to be
undertaken with earnestness and faith on the part of its projectors, and
with so philosophical a mind as Miss Fisher's as the mainspring, some
good results will be certain to follow. A pleasant afternoon was spent
at Miss Garland's class, while Miss Jenks gave a singing and game les-
son to the undergraduates. Miss Jenks' happy, spontaneous manner
was quite as noticeable in her work with the teachers as with her chil-
dren. In her kindergarten in Brookline she has ideal surroundings,
and eyes and heart to see and apply them. The room, or rooms, are
models as far as light, heat, ventilation, conveniences, and tools are
concerned. Outside, she has hills, woods, a brook and pond, a barn-
yard near by, trees in which birds nest, and all nature is literally at her
feet. Her children, as befit such surroundings, were joyous and spon-
taneous, the whole atmosphere being one of cheer and brotherly love.
I visited several kindergartens under the public schools, in company
with Miss Pingree, and had an opportunity to hear the songs and games
FIELD NOTES. 579
and see the table work as planned by Miss Fisher the week before.
The most remarkable order prevailed in each of these kindergartens,
no talking or whispering being allowed, as I suppose i^s necessary where
all the children under six in the public kindergartens of a great city
must learn certain things by the end of each week. I was struck by
the array of illustrative pictures and blackboard work in all the rooms,
and also by the amount of space allotted to each division. With one
exception, each kmdergarten I visited had a room for each grade, so
that all the freedom necessary could be had. One pleasant memory is
of a lunch with Miss Lucy Wheelock, and a visit to her class. The
work was with the Second Gift, and was most charming. Miss Whee-
lock's own poetic imagination gave a personality and companionship to
the gift that were most instructive. Her students dropped into verse or
poetic prose with the greatest ease, and their stories were not only good
from the imaginative side, but many of them had real literary merit.
Miss Wheelock's training seems to bring out this quality from those
under her gentle guidance, to a marked degree. The inspiration which
one receives by contact with minds engaged in the same line of work
is not to be undervalued, and is to be counted as a privilege and spur
to greater effort in that direction toward which all true educators are
working, — namely, the uplifting and ennobling of the human race."
Mr. Gustaf Larsson, of the Boston Sloyd Training school, spent a
part of the months of December and January on the Pacific coast, in the
interest of his American sloyd system. He touched the following cities,
holding public meetings and visiting the schools of the same: Santa
Barbara, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Stockton, Pasadena,
Berkeley, and Palo Alto; also New Orleans, Chicago, and Brooklyn, on
his return trip to Boston. Mr. Larsson made this Pacific tour at the in-
stance of Miss Blake, of Santa Barbara, who has established and main-
tains one of the most unique schools on the coast, including a model
sloyd training school. Mr. Larsson's impressions of the coast and its
people are highly flattering. He says of the audiences who listened to
him, that they were intelligent and receptive, — such people as one might
talk to for hours and never weary. He was also most cordially enter-
tained by the individuals interested in educational matters. It is of no
slight importance that the subject of such a new educational departure
as sloyd, be given its first introduction to the public by its chief repre-
sentatives. Mr. Larsson makes a stanch plea for well-equipped teachers,
whether in sloyd, kindergarten, or any other department of work. The
Santa Barbara Evening Press made this comment in an extended report
of Mr. Larsson's work there: "Gustaf Larsson is not an orator in the
common sense of that term, but his straightforward talks on a subject
that is his very life, warms his audience into a deep conviction of the
importance of his theme." Mr. Larsson also addressed the State
Teachers' Association of California. When asked, " What is the best
580 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
method of introducing sloyd into the pubhc schools?" he answered: "I
would first establish a training school for twenty sloyd teachers. The
complete equipm&nt for such a room, with tools and apparatus, would
be $495. A competent instructor would raise the sum to $2,000." He
said further: "The beneficent results of this work are visible everywhere
in Sweden, even in the humblest peasant's cottage, where beautiful wood
ornamentations, which surprise the stranger and tourist, are really ex-
pressions of the sloyd trainmg." " Sloyd is not to teach boys how to make
a living, but how to live. It aims to make the boy, and not the wooden
models." There is a dignity and an intelligence in Mr. Larsson's educa-
tional views which prove the sound pedagogical [Minciples which he rec-
ognizes as fundamental to all departments of school work. The per-
sonal support which has heretofore made the background of his work in
Boston, has made it possible for him to hold fast to ideals in organizing
the work, and extending it into the public schools without compromise.
Under his direction a boys' club of San Francisco will organize for a
sloyd class at the Midwinter Fair, and to that end are raising a fund of
$2,000 to defray the necessary expenses. The exhibit will be composed
of a class of boys and girls, — the boys from the club, and the girls from
the Harrison street kitchen garden, who will go through with and prac-
tically demonstrate all the evolutions in the first stages of the system.
Commencement of the Louisville Free Kinde7-ga?-ten Association. —
At Macauley's Theater, in Louisville, on the 6th of February, from four
to six o'clock p. M., were held the commencement exercises of the
Louisville Kindergarten Training class. The theater was crowded,
many being compelled to stand. And though it was afternoon, a large
number of the most interested listeners were the prominent business
and professional men of the city. The audience was composed of
teachers, students, business men, and other thoughtful men and women.
The rapt and silent- attention was unusual in its completeness, and was
inspiring to all who took part m the exercises. The stage setting and
effect were particularly pretty and artistic, and the program for the
afternoon was peculiarly simple and enjoyable. Including an opening
pi-ayer, a short address by an able educator of the city, and some intro-
ductory remarks by Miss Patty Hill, who has charge of the work during
Miss Bryan's absence, the following is an outline: Essay, "The Relation
of the Ideal to Action in the Kindergarten," by Miss Nettie Hewitt;
songs by kindergarten (music class) chorus, — ".Waltz Song," "Every
Night," "The Lark"; essay, "What Kindergarten Training does for
Young Women," Miss Mildred Peay; "Spring Song," by Weil, and a
Lullaby by Brahms, Miss Mari Ruef Hofer; song by chorus. Lullaby,
from "Song Stories." Miss Mari Ruef Hofer, of Chicago, herself
directed the chorus on this occasion, and the music proved to be one of
the special features, giving, as it were, to the public another educative
phase of kindergarten work. Miss Hofer's own singing and the effect
FIELD NOTES. 581
it produced illustrated this point in a very striking way. Miss Peay's
essay gave to women some glimpses cind ideas of what well-rounded
development of womanly character really is, and that of Miss Hewitt
informed an inquiring public of what the realities of kindergarten are.
Miss Bryan's absence was regretted, but Miss Patty S. Hill, who has
had charge during her absence, filled the vacancy with a dignified sim-
plicity that was both charming and satisfactory. Twenty-five diplomas
were granted. A teacher and great scholar said of the commencement,
" I never saw so many earnest faces together as those of the graduates
and teachers." Another said he had never attended an occasion that
was as natural and easy in its processes. Kindergarten work in Louis-
ville is in a more progressive and better condition than it has ever been
before, and each commencement seems to mark a deeper and more
lasting interest. The attendance of children in all the kindei'gartens
is up to and above the standard, and the training classes are full of
bright and promising women, the new junior class being unusually
large. The established teachers are constantly studying to deepen and
broaden their educative purposes and facilities, and the work is reach-
ing through the South. — Contributed.
Mrs. Chas. H^^enrotin addressed the Chicago Kindergarten Club,
February 3, on Industrial Economics. Being thoroughly informed on
the values of the kindergarten work, relative to existing educational
systems, her presentation of the subject was eminently practical and
valuable. The larger life view of this specific work, brought before the
club by Mrs. Henrotin, sent every member home with new zeal and joy.
Her optimistic views are based on experience and a knowledge of con-
ditions as they are; hence they are wholesome, and appeal to common
sense. Her sketch, "Woman's Life and Place in the Great Economic
System of the World," brought to light with new force the importance of
practical education, and the privilege enjoyed by those whose profes-
sion it is to deal with the very young children. It is a regret to all con-
cerned that this extemporaneous discourse may not be presented in
full to the readers of the Kindergarten Magazine. The remaining
dates of the club will be occupied by Mr. George L. Schreiber on " Indi-
viduality in Art," by Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Professor Gra-
ham Taylor, and Mrs. Shortall on "Games and Play." Each member
is entitled to bring one guest to each meeting, place of which is 10
Van Buren street, Froebel Hall. The lecture delivered at the last
meeting, Saturday, February 16, was upon "Color," and the lecturer,
Mr. G. L. Schreiber, is well known in Chicago, both as artist and
teacher. The speaker showed strong opposition to formal color teach-
ing, and especially denounced the presentation of color to little children
apart from form and separated from life associations. He believed the
mastery of color nomenclature by children would amount to nothing in
their education, and would tend to divorce color from that which gives it
582 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
vitality, — i. e., form, — from which it cannot be abstracted without render-
ing the color flat and meaningless. He sustained his arguments for the
synthetic and natural use of color in education, by a brief survey of the
evolution of design in race history, and showed that what might appear
to be mere conventional ornament is in reality the crude but sincere
representation of phases of nature as felt by the childlike mind, and
made apparently formal by repetition. Mr. Schreiber made a strong
plea for unity in art, the unity of Froebel's philosophy, which is the
unity of life.
The Woman's School Alliance of Milwaukee, Wis., is»a vigorous and
vital organization, whose special work in the community is to care for
school children. The alliance is composed of women interested in edu-
cational matters, of mothers and teachers, many of whom are serious
students of true child-training. These women investigate the existing
conditions of the schools, especially the lower grades, with a view to rec-
ommending improvements. At a recent meeting of the alliance. Miss
Twitchell, of the kindergarten department of the Milwaukee State
Normal school, addressed the ladies on how parents may cooperate
with the schools. She suggested the organization of educational reviv-
als. If religious revivals be important, educational revivals may be
still more so. She coincided with the alliance's idea of mothers co-
operating with educators. She urged the alliance and mothers' clubs to
awaken a personal interest in all women of Milwaukee in these ques-
tions, and induce them to join in the work. " Do not consider the kinder-
garten apart from the other school work," she said, "but examine the other
grades; see where the primary grades meet the kindergarten work, and
see that these teachers as well have proper psychological training."
Every Kindergarten club may become the central station for such home
missionary work. Let us extend our borders, and include more and
more the citizens of the world.
The kindergarten movement in Toledo is receiving more than
usual attention this winter on account of the general desire of the peo-
ple to see it become a part of our school system. The young ladies of
the Misses Law's training school have a most excellent course of study,
including, besides the regular kindergarten course, applied psychology,
and special teachers in Delsarte, music, and free-hand drawing. The
kindergarten has steadily increased in numbers, notwithstanding an
increase in price and the general stringency of the money market.
The industrial school has just entered its new building, and the kinder-
garten, under the supervision of Miss Alida Chapin, is working with
renewed zeal. The Day Nursery Kindergarten, under the manage-
ment of Miss Jane Adair Corlett, is working wonders with the little
ones who daily seek its hospitable doors. Another free kindergarten
and a number of private kindergartens swell the list of children who
are receiving this potent education. — M. E. L.
FIELD NOTES. 583
Omaha, Neb., has seven public school kindergartens, under the di-
rection of kindergartners selected from various parts of the country.
There was a time when the kindergartners of a city were products of one
central training school. This is no longer practicable in all cases. As
school committees select their grade teachers from among the material
available at large, so they are now taking kindergartners from many
sources of training. This demands a stronger individuality among the
workers; it demands a greater knowledge of fundamental principles and
a broader charity for the sincere methods of fellow kindergartners.
Omaha organized a kindergarten club in May, 1893, which numbers
some thirty members and discusses the practical issues of the move-
ment.
From Galveston, Tex., comes the program of the " Practical Kinder-
gartners' Club," which met January 23, with the following order of exer-
cises: Roll call by the secretary, with responses by quotations from
Froebel; story, illustrated by the Second Gift; reading from the "Edu-
cation of Man"; list of good stories for the kindergarten, and where
they may be secured; discussion by members of the club on kinder-
garten magazines; a paper on " Kindergarten Freaks," by Miss A. E.
Warner. This program suggests informal discussions, which every club
may do well to emulate. Formal lectures are good culture for the indi-
vidual, while free discussion of vital pedagogical points brings kinder-
gartners into companionable relationship.
At the recent session of the Colorado State Teachers' Association,
held at Colorado Springs, an address was made by Professor Z. X.
Snyder, president of the Greeley Normal school, on this all-important
topic: "What should be the Preparation of the Kindergarten Teacher?"
His recommendations are, in substance: She should have balance,
physical and mental; clear conscience; scholarship; the power of
righteousness; hope, faith, and religion. We are glad to read Mr. Sny-
der's sound sentences, as they deal with the essentials of character
entirely. It is not enough to have intellectual knowledge of things
and methods, to be well read, or understand theories; a kindergartner
must embody the soul qualities which distinguish the type-mother.
A LARGER number than usual, of earnest kindergarten workers, at-
tended the February meeting of the Philadelphia branch of the Inter-
national Kindergarten Union. Miss Mackenzie, the president, intro-
duced Miss Anna E. Bryan, of Louisville, Ky., who spoke on "Spiritual
Development in the Kmdergarten." Her forcible presentation of the
subject, with the practical suggestions which it contained, furnished for
many of her hearers much food for reilection, and made us deeply
conscious of our responsibility in the training of the little ones committed
to our care. — Secy.
584 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
A KINDERGARTEN reception has the latent possibility to become the
most social and companionable kind of a gathering. The two hundred
or more Chicago kindergartners who accepted the cordial invitation of
Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, brought all of this social possibility to the sur-
face. It was an afternoon of fraternal intercourse which turned lecture,
music, games, and impromptu speeches to the service of pleasure.
A mothers' culture club which was formed with the new year at
Charleston, S. C, is growing in interest and usefulness, having forty-six
earnest, enthusiastic women, who are planning to enlarge their work
into that of a kindergarten association, including a training school.
Charleston offers many advantages for such training work, in the many
specialist educators and professional artists and musicians.
Under the auspices of the Albany Kindergarten Teachers' Associa-
tion, Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin gave one of her delightful readings
January 23. The hall was crowded, everyone was pleased, and by her
coming to Albany much interest in the work has been aroused. The
association was able, from the proceeds, to net over $225 for a mission
kindergarten, and $75 for its own work.
" The Union Froebeliana Argentina,'' of Parana, S. A., was organized
on Froebel's birthday in 1893, and has now over one hundred members,
and the editors of the Kindergarten Magazine are proud to be
among the honorary members of so thrifty a society.
A press association has been formed among the college journals of
this country. It is to be hoped that this mutual interchange of stand-
ards may elevate rnany of these journals from the amateur to the more
mature plane of journalism.
The National Educational Association will hold its annual conven-
tion for 1894 at Duluth, Minn. Teachers who follow the association to
its various summer camping grounds become familiar with much inter-
esting local geography.
Hartford, Conn., has two women's educational clubs. We are
not informed of their plans of operation, but trust they give space and
place for the earnest study of modern educational movements and
practices.
The Jacksonville Kindergarten Training school numbers sixteen
young women, gathered from various southern cities.
The Utica Kindergarten Association has grown to a membership
of seventy-five, in less than six months.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
"Symbolic Education," by Susan E. Blow (D. Appleton & Co., pub-
lishers). This book comes as A'olume XXVI of the International Edu-
cation Series, so well known and appreciated among educators. It has
been promised the public for several years, and is most heartily wel-
comed by kindergartners, who have looked to Miss Blow for an addi-
tional word in print, with which to supplement her strong work and
demonstration of earlier years. Dr. Wm. T. Harris edits this volume,
as he has the preceding ones of this series. There is an additional fit-
ness, however, in his editing Miss Blow's text, since the two have been
coworkers and educational pioneers together in the past. "Symbolic
Education" is an interpretation rather than a commentary, of Fr. Froe-
bel's educational doctrines. It presents the most vital phases of natural
and sound child-development, in a clear yet radical manner. There is
no mysticism about this 't symbolism" which opens all the doors of the
human soul. Miss Blow may well speak with authority on many of the
mooted points. She does so with directness, conviction, and warmth.
The growth of the child is not a matter for physiological consideration;
it demands the insight of a philosopher, not a stoic, of an altruist, not a
materialist, to weigh and measure such soul quantities as imagination,
intuition, affection, reverence, and life-fruitions. Miss Blow fulfills
these conditions with eminent success. She does not leave the subject
of early child-training a matter of theory, but one of daily demonstration.
Many misconceptions of the kindergarten, of children, and of life in
general, are corrected in this book. It is eminently a book for parents.
The plea in the seventh chapter, for nature freedom and nature contact
for all children, is poetic as well as powerful. This volume is all the
more valuable to the kindergarten movement, in that it does not limit its
comprehensivness by the use of technical or professional terms. Teach-
ers of public or private schools, as well as church workers and parents,
will fin'd in " Symbolic Education" milk and nuts and meat. It is an ex-
position of sound ethical as well as religious training for humanity. It
is one of the milestones in educational literature. It is the greatest text-
book of the kindergarten training, after Froebel's own. The Kinder-
garten Literature Company are prepared to supply kindergartens and
teachers, from the first shipment of the book; price $1.50, single copies;
special rates being given on club orders through correspondence. Miss
Elizabeth Harrison will discuss the book at length in the next number
of the Kindergarten Magazine.
The January number of the Pacific Educational Journal brmgs a
586 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
valuable portrait of Emma Marwedel, and a sketch of her life and work
by Albin Putzker of the University of California.
The Altruist Quarterly Interchatige devoted its January number to
the subject of the kindergarten, with this motto on the title-page:
"Every man is called to the service of others." The editor brings a
worthy sketch of " Froebel and the Kindergarten." Mrs. Ellen T. Brock-
way presents a condensed account of the growth of the kindergarten in
the United States. "The Kindergarten in the Barbary Coast," by Mrs.
Sarah B. Cooper, and other interesting matter, are appropriate to such a
special number. The work of consolidating and organizing charities is
bringing together the great workers in kindred lines, and we believe
that a knowledge of kindergarten movements and method is profitable
to all philanthropists, in whatever line.
"The Political Economy of Natural Law." Messrs. Lee & Shepard
have issued a new book by Henry Wood, author of " Ideal Suggestions,"
"God's Image in Man," "Edward Burton," etc., under the above title.
Its purpose is to outline a political economy which is practical and nat-
ural rather than theoretical and artificial, being a study of inherent laws
and principles. The titles of a few of the twenty-four chapters will give
some idea of its contents. Among them are The Law of Cooperation,
The Law of Competition, Combinations of Capital, Combinations of
Labor, Socialism, Can Capital and Labor be Harmonized? The Central-
ization of Business, Industrial Education, \lc. The idealism and opti-
mism of this book strongly distinguish it from many of the pessimistic
treatises of the present time. Price, $1.25.
With the current number (February) the Canadian Magazine com-
pletes its first year of publication, and with a record for excellence and
financial prosperity not equaled in the history of Canadian magazine lit-
erature. The number is a strong one, and several of the articles are of
remarkable merit, while interest attaches to every contribution in the
number. The illustrations, too, are excellent. Professor John Camp-
bell, of Montreal, leads with a comprehensive, scholarly, and most inter-
esting paper on "The American Indian, What and Whence," a paper
which should rank among the very first in the magazines of the month.
"The Schools of the Olden Times," by one of the Boys (Hon. David
Mills), gives a pleasing glimpse into the rural Ontario of fifty years ago.
The Canadian Magazine is published by the Ontario Publishing Co.,
Ltd., Toronto. Price, $2.50 per annum.
"The Little Old Man" is a story written on request, by "Uncle Char-
ley," published by C. W. Bardeen; price 50 cts. It illustrates the daily
pitfalls and consequent irritablenesses of family life, to which children
are exposed, and the experience of little Nisby with the mysterious little
man, who is " chairman of the board of trustees of the school for illiberal
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. 587
mothers." It is an entertaining illustration of the pedagogic rule that
children should learn by doing, rather than be taught what not to do, on
faith that mother's word is law.
"Boys as They are Made, and How to Remake Them," is issued in
pamphlet form by C. W. Bardeen; price 25 cts. It is the contents of a
paper read before the Unity Club, of Rochester, N. Y., by Mr. Franklin
H. Briggs, chief of the department of mental and manual instruction in
the state industrial school of the above city. The paper is a remark-
able compound of bright, sound, and radical arguments in behalf of the
Tight training for the boys who are to make men. The home boy, the
alley boy, the vagrant and pauper, are all pictured in their tendencies
and environment. As one remedial ingredient in the social reconstruc-
tion necessary in large cities, Mr. Briggs says with conviction: "Substi-
tute the kindergarten for the home and the street during the day; estab-
lish one in every locality where the poor abound." He asks, What
about the boys who are beyond the kindergarten age? What need has
the boy of the school, and the school of the boy? Such practical ques-
tions set people to thinking. The pamphlet is a most valuable argu-
ment in the use of free kindergarten associations and reform educators.
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
Bound Volumes. — \'ols, IV and V, handsomely bound in fine silk
cloth, ^cjiving the full year's work in compact shape, each $3.
Always. — Subscriptions are stopped on expiration, the _last number
being marked, "With this number your subscription expires," and a
return subscription blank inclosed.
Always. — Our readers who change their addresses should imme-
diately notify us of same and save the return of their mail to us. State
both the new and the old location. It saves time and trouble.
Always — Send your subscription made payable to the Kindergarten
Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago, 111., either by money order,
express order, postal note, or draft. (No foreign stamps received.)
There are only a few copies of Vol. I of Child-Garden to be had.
They are now bound, and being rapidly exhausted. We desire to give
our readers the first chance at purchasing them. Send for it before
they are all gone. Price $2.
Child-Garden Samples. — Send in lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
Remember some child's birthday with a gift of Child-Garden, only $1
per year.
Portraits of Froebel. — Fine head of Froebel; also Washington, Lin-
coln, and Franklin; on fine boards, 6 cents each, or ten for 50 cents.
Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago.
(Size 6x8 inches.)
We want our readers to know that the printing and binding depart-
ment of the Kindergarten Literature Company is in operation and ex-
cellently equipped for the getting out of all kinds of books and miscel-
laneous printing. Send for estimates and information.
Starved to Death in midst of plenty. Unfortunate, unnecessary, yet
we hear of it often. Infants thrive physically and mentally when prop-
erly fed. The Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk is undoubt-
edly the safest and best infant food obtainable. Grocers and Druggists.
Wanted — January, 1893, and March, 1893, numbers of Child-Garden.
Other numbers exchanged for them.
Iiesllone Siniilfei l§ ieiirei SohdsH lo lisiFicl
end §cioel Oounoiie.
The District Councils will report results of discussions directly to
Caroline E. Towles, secretary; the School Councils will report to
their respective District Councils.
It was decided by an unanimous vote of the Cen-
tral Council March 13th, that the Executive Com-
mittee of the Council should form questions, to be
referred to School and District Councils for discus-
sion, concerning Expert Responsibility and the num-
ber and mode of selection of the members of the
Board of Education.
The Executive Committee submit the following
for discussion:
/\.. Board of Education.
I. Is it desirable that the number of members of the
Board of Education be reduced:
If so, what should be the number?
Should they be appointed''
If so, b)' whom?
Should they be elected?
If so, should they be elected at large, and when?
What qualifications for eligibility should be required?
B. Powers of Superintendent.
8. Should the power and responsibility of the Superin-
tendent be enlarged in action pertaining to —
{a) Determination of the course of study?
{b) Selection of text-books?
(f) Appointment and removal of assistant superin-
tendents, supervisors, principals, teachers?
9 What should be the limitations of these powers?
10. Should there be any Advisory Board, composed of
members of the supervising and teaching- force?
11. Is it desirable to have an Examining Board?
12. If so. how shall it be constituted?'
13. Is a change in the state law touching any or all of
these matters advisable?
Will School and District Councils frankly discuss
these questions and send report to Secretary of Cen-
tral Council!'
J. H. NORTON, Chairman
CAROLINE M. TOWLES. Secretary
Geo. D. Davis Austin Rishel
Mrs. Maggie Gill Rufus Hitch
Sup't Hannan Elizabeth D. Wood
Homer Bevans Gertrude Martin
Wm. C. Payne
Executive Committee
Froebel's Monlment
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.— APRIL, 1894.— No. S.
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION.
MARY DANA HICKS.
(Given before the Kindergarten Department of the World's Con-
gresses, 1893.)
I BELIEVE that there is no word that has more phases
of meaning than this word "art," that is to play so
large a part in the discussion of this morning.
To one, it means a bunch of paper flowers; to
another, a decorated shovel; to another, wax lilies under a
glass cover; to another, one of John's or Mary's wonderful,
crude works in charcoal, done by a child knowing nothing of
modes of expression, but inspiring the rapt admiration of
his parents; to another, a photograph or a colored print;
to another, a study of the antique; to another, a transparent
water color; to another, a fine engraving; to another, an oil
painting, frequently most commonplace; to another, a John
Rogers group; to another, a graceful ornament; to another,,
a beautiful vase; to another, a Corot, a Millet, a Raphael, a
Era Angelico, or a Venus of Melos, a Gothic cathedral, or a
Greek Parthenon. The objects that are portrayed are dif-
ferent, the appreciation is different, but the impulse is the
same in all, — a desire to satisfy the aesthetic sense, a desire
to satisfy that longing for refinement and beauty which
every living soul possesses, and the germs of which remain
in every human being however degraded. It is an uncon-
scious reaching out for something higher, of which dint
590 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
forecasts are felt within, a striving for the possibilities of
enjoyment and creation of the beautiful, which is part of
the inheritance of everyone. The realization of this desire
and feeling for the beautiful in any degree, is art, and the
expression of this feeling is a work of art.
The art impulse may not always be strong. It will need
nurture and care; it will for a long time need direction; but
it always exists; it is a reality from the beginning of the life
of the human soul. It has to be cultivated. It has to be
developed. Otherwise its possibilities and even its very
existence may remain unknown.
Henry Barnard has wisely said, "The nature of babies
and young children is still much less considered by scien-
tific observers than is that of plants and animals; there is,
consequently, in this field an infinite number of discoveries
and experiences to be collected together, which, in their
importance for the well-being of human society, are second
to no science whatever. What Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Jean
Paul, Burdach, Schleiermacher, and others have effected in
this direction is still very little compared with what has yet
to be done in order that education may really bear good
fruit, and the secret workings of the child's mind and spirit
be fully revealed."
We are beginning now to study the child. The first sys-
tematic attempt of that sort was by Preyer; he, however,
studied but one child. Now studies of the child are being
presented with great earnestness on every side. The very
suggestive and valuable papers before the art and manual
training congresses, by Mr. Earl Barnes, professor of educa-
tion at the Leland Stanford University, is of very great sig-
nificance. His deductions were very strong and of great
interest on the side of mental development, showing to a
degree the child's method of thinking and of representing
what he thinks. The plotted curves took us up to the
child's heights and down to his valleys, so far as the subject
of the thoughts presented in the little story would let him
go. The story of "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" was a child's
story with a moral implied.
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION. 59I
JOHNNY-LOOK-IN-THE-AIR.
As he trudged along to school,
It was always Johnny's rule
To be looking at the sky
And the clouds that floated by;
But what just before him lay,
In his way,
Johnny never thought about;
So that everyone cried out,
' Look at little Johnny there.
Little Johnny-Look-in-the-Air!"
Running just in Johnny's way
Came a little do^^ one day;
Johnny's eyes were still astray
Up on high, in the sky;
And he never heard them cry,
Johnny, mind; the dog is nigh!"
What happens now?
Bump!
Dump!
Down they fell, with such a thump.
Dog and Johnny in a lump!
They almost broke their bones,
So hard they tumbled on the stones.
Once, with head as high as ever,
Johnny walked beside the river.
Johnny watched the swallows trying
Which was cleverest at flying.
Oh, what fun!
Johnny watched the bright, round sun
Going in and coming out;
This was all he thought about.
So he strode on — only think! —
To the river's very brink.
Where the bank was high and steep.
And the water very deep;
And the fishes in a row.
Stared to see him coming so.
One step more! Oh, sad to tell!
Headlong in, poor Johnny fell.
The three fishes, in dismay,
Wagged their heads, and swam away.
There lay Johnny on his face.
592 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
With his nice, red writing case.
' But, as they were passing by,
Two strong men had heard him cry;
And with sticks these two strong men
Hooked poor Johnny out again.
Oh, you should have seen him shiver
When they pulled him from the river!
He was in a sorry plight.
Dripping wet, and such a fright!
Wet all over, everywhere, —
Clothes and arms and face and hair.
Johnny never will forget
What it is to be so wet.
And the fishes, one, two, three.
Are come back again, you see.
Up they came, a moment after.
To enjoy the fun and laughter.
Each popped out his little head.
And to tease poor Johnny, said,
"Silly little Johnny, look;
You have lost your writing book!"
Look at them laughing; and do you see
His writing book driftmg far to sea?
Strange to say, it was discovered that the children (over
six thousand in number) who drew various scenes from the
little story, cared more for the quieter scenes than for the
rougher ones; greater numbers selected these to draw,
johnny meeting the dog was more interesting to them than
Johnny tumbling over the dog. Johnny's going to the river
was to them, apparently, a more delightful subject of
thought than Johnny falling into the river. And still far-
ther, the scene that called forth feeling of the highest order
presented in the story, — Johnny's rescue, — attracted them
more than the calamities which befell Johnny,
These results are especially encouraging to those who
believe the better impulses of the child are stronger than
those which are debasing. Still farther, the results are
encouraging to those who believe in the art impulses of the
child. The story selected was not one which would in any
way call forth any desire for the beautiful or any impulse
to express it. But in the few examples presented there
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION. 593
could be seen a revealing of the inborn aesthetic sense, a
revealing of the disposition toward those laws which under-
lie the highest art.
Professor Barnes said that one noticeable feature was
the disposition of the children to present Johnny as the
hero by emphasizing this fact in their own way. Johnny
was made large, while his rescuers were in many cases made
small, as if to show in the minds of the children that he
was the important person. If this conclusion of Professor
Barnes is correct, — and therJ seems to be no reason to
doubt its correctness, — there is shown right here the recog-
nition by the child of one of the great principles of art, — the
principle of values, the need that objects should be ex-
pressed in some way so as to convey to those who see a
picture the relative importance of the objects portrayed,
the need that the principal object should be so given that
its importance will at once be conveyed to the eye, and the
accompanying need that subordinate objects should receive
subordinate treatment. This is a lesson that the art student
has to work long to learn. In the most cases he has lost
that early, most unconscious sense of relations, of emphasis
and of proportion (I mean proportion in the large sense of
the relation between the principal and the subordinate),
that early sense of relative importance and of relative value.
The art element found in these drawings is what Pro
fessor Barnes calls the diagrammatic expression. The draw-
ings seemed, however, to be rather more than diagrammatic,
for the diagrammatic means coldness and intellectuality,
while these drawings have warmth, life, and even color.
They have, however, an art element which is often sought
in vain by art students, a directness and simplicity that uses
only telling lines, a strong expression by outline alone.
Professor Barnes said that the drawings did not make clear
whether the child apprehended more than two dimen-
sions. The subjects of the scenes were not such as to give
much opportunity for showing this apprehension, but the
few actual drawings of the children's own work do show, in
594 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the case of the book floating in the water, and of the hat,
that a third dimension is unconsciously recognized.
The drawings showed another art element, — that of the
recognition by the child of the whole rather than of the
parts, that which is known technically as "seeing the mass."
Here the children have especially the advantage of those
who have seen more. Life begins with them, as Professor
James characterizes it, as a "big, blooming confusion."
Gradually there appear images in their strong characteris-
tics, and later the details appear, one by one. So in the
drawings of the children: first the essentials, then the
details; first the mass, then the parts composing the mass;
first the outline of the head, then the eyes, nose, and mouth.
Professor Barnes made the very significant statement
that in no case in all the drawings was there any attempt at
anything like a decoration. There were no borders on the
drawings. Here is manifested another recognized element;
namely, that decorative and representative drawings should
not be combined, as the purpose is essentially different.
Too often we see this law violated, and yet out of the
mouths of these babes it is spoken for us. They tell us of
oneness of purpose.
Yet for all that, these drawings reveal to us the decora-
tive instinct, for Professor Barnes pointed out that on these
drawings there were, especially in the case of the younger
children, various little addetida which had nothing what-
ever to do with the story. He spoke especially of the
desire for repetition which frequently manifested itself.
In one case a child drew twenty-six Johnnies. In this is
shown that very strong element in decorative art, that of
rhythm, which is innate in us all. We breathe in rhythm,
and our nature always responds to rh3^thm, whether in
verse, in song, or in decoration.
And still farther, the child seized here the only oppor-
tunity presented of manifesting the creative, which is, after
all, the great art element.
These drawings then reveal to us the art elements of
values, proportion, simplicity, and directness, graphic qual-
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION. 595
ity, oneness of purpose, recognition of the whole (seeing in
the mass), a sense of rhythm, and greatest of all, creative
power.
It is hoped that this experiment may be supplemented
by many others. Even with this story in which there was
no reaching toward the ideal, the child has revealed his
aesthetic sense, his impulse toward art.
This controverts some of the ideas held in the past. Art
has been recognized as the flower of civilization. Works of
art are the highest works of man. That which the world
would least willingly spare from its life are the masterpieces
of art. Earth proudly wears the Parthenon
As the best gem upon her zone.
What could compensate for its loss, or for that of the
Venus of Melos, the Sistine Madonna? Herein lies the
consummate genius of the man, — the realization of his
highest aspirations. Can it be possible that this is also the
heritage of the little child, that in him lie the desires and
the possibilities which, if nurtured, trained, and difected,
will lead in soine degree to the same fruition? It has been
deemed an anomaly to say so; it has been deemed wrong
to think so. But we are coming to believe that the child is
father to the man, and that "Heaven lies around us in our
infancy." In the little child lies the art impulses of crea-
tivity, the creation of the beautiful. This will not grow,
blossom, and bear fruit except as the sun shines on it, as
the dews and the rain water it, as the soil nourishes it, and
as it is tended and trained and guided to its full stature and
its highest fruition. In the beginning it has but the tender
life of an infant; it reaches out toward the light, but if it
finds only darkness, it hides itself and is lost. What can
we do for this divine impulse? How shall we foster it?
First, we riiust recognize it; we must give it sustenance
by presentation of the beautiful. We must let the sun of
human encouragement and sympathy shine upon it; we
must train it gently by leading -wisely to observation; we
must teach it the arts of technique. We must bring to its
support the cultivation of the imagination; we must lead
596 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
it to the best expression of the highest thought. We have
too often let the imagination lie unnoticed, uncultivated;
in fact, its cultivation has to some appeared a sin. Do
you not know its delights, how it brightens the vision
and widens the horizon, how it leads to good deeds, to fine
literature, to beautiful art? I have been very much touched
by a little poem that brings out the heaven-born gift won-
derfully. It is entitled "One, Two, Three," is by H. C.
Bunner, and appeared in Scrib?ier's Magazine.
It was an old, old, old lady,
And a boy who was half-past three;
And the way that they played together
Was beautiful to see.
She couldn't go running and jumping,
And the'boy, no more could he;
For he was a thin little fellow,
With a thin little twisted knee.
They sat in the yellow sunlight
Out under the maple tree;
And the game that they played I'll tell you,
, Just as it^was told to me.
It was hide-and-go-seek they were playing,
Though you'd never have known it to be,
With an old, old, old, old lady
And a boy with a twisted knee.
The boy would bend his face down
On his one little sound right knee.
And he'd guess where she was hiding,
' In guesses One, Two, Three.
"You are in the china closet,"
He would cry, and laugh with glee.
It wasn't the china closet;
But he still had Two and Three.
"You are up in Papa's big bedroom,
In the chest with the queer old key;" • '
And she said, "You are warm, and warmer.
But you're not]quite right," said she.
" It can't be the little cupboard,
Where Mamma's things used to be,
So it must be the clothespress, Grandma;"
And he found her with his Three.
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION. 597
Then she covered her face with her fingers,
That were wrinkled and white and wee,
And she guessed where the boy was hiding,
With a One, and a Two, and a Three.
And they never had stirred from their places
Right under the maple tree —
This old, old, old, old lady
And the boy with the lame little knee,
This dear, dear, dear old lady.
And the boy who was half-past three.
But I hear the questions, How can this be done for the
little one? what are the practical means? You know how
Froebel would lead you. You have read in "Die Mutter
und Kose-Lieder" how he would train the little artist.
You know how he presents ideals in the types of form;
how he leads the child to these types; and how from these
types he develops the whole world of the child from obser-
vation, from memory, and from imagination; and how he
leaves you to infer that expression by drawing should fol-
low. Then must come gently closer observation, expand-
ing thought, and truer expression. To aid the true, free
expression, must be movements for the body, so that the
free spirit may be aided by the free body. I would like to
read to you one or two simple lessons in observation which
a kindergartner gave to her children:
"My children drew the apple pretty well last Friday, —
better than I expected, — and I felt disturbed, fearing that I
had not taught them right or had forced them in some way;
so I thought I would try something else, and test them
about eight minutes today and yesterday. Three bright
ones were absent, but I send you the result. I placed our
duck before them, between two tables where the children
sat, and merely told them to draw a picture of the duck.
I think all that I noticed placed the head on the duck in
the picture as they saw it. Some sat on one side and some
on the other. I made no remark to them about the draw-
ing of the duck. You remember we tried to make the duck
in clay, but not very successfully. Then today I placed
our century plant on the table, and told them to draw that.
598 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
It has a saucer, and is the largest plant we have; and as it
has no leaves like an ordinary plant, I thought I would see
how they would draw it. You will notice some noticed the
sides should be slanting. We have never made this in clay.
I said nothing about it at all at any time. I think they
show by these two tests that their lessons have been of
service to them.
"I have felt lately that the children were beginning to
notice that sometimes straight lines looked slanting; so I
planned these two little lessons, given as I could through
the week, not displacing the other lessons. I asked them
to tell me first about the cabinet door, which was shut.
They said 'edges were up and down, left and right,' etc.
Then the dressing-room door, they told correctly. Then I
opened both, and I thought they were surprised to see the
left-to-right edges looked slanting. They did not hesitate
at all, but said, 'They look slafiting.'
"Then I brought two large, heavy books and stood both
up on two tables, and told them to draw the cover shut;
that is No. i. Then I opened the cover a little way, and
they said the top and bottom edges were slanting, and drew
No. 2 on the other side. I think I expected a little better
work than I got; however, such as it is, I will send it to
you. The point of the lesson was that sometimes left-to-
right lines look slanting.
"The next day, to impress still farther on the children's
minds that straight lines sometimes look slanting, I shut
half of the blind at two windows, and the children talked
with me about the edges, and saw them correctly; all drew
it (No. i); then we pushed the blinds back a little, and the
children said the slats now looked slanting, and bottom
edges also (we could not see top edges); they noticed the
long edges looked just the same as before, up and down;
but they drew them, as you will see by looking at Lesson
No. 2. I hope I make it plain; a blind pushed a little from
the window does look as though the slats were slanting;
and the children saw at once, but did not draw very well."
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION. 599
I would like also to read you a little experience of one
of our students who is a primary teache;":
"Now I've just one story to tell, and I'm done. This is
to show how in a little child the desire to idealize is felt.
My wee ones were having a happy time with our first white
daisies. Every child had a bunch, and told so many beau-
tiful thoughts about them, — the circle of sunshine in the
center, the memory of the snowflake covering in the petals,^
and so on. Then we drew them. May selected for her
study one which had a beautiful, perfect blossom; but when
she drew it, she saw that the stem was ugly. It had been
crowded in my basket, and had two very awkward turns, or
'bends.' But she worked away, and by and by, when I
was passing near her desk, said: 'Miss Goodyear, look; I
had to make it so, because it is so' — this in an apologetic
tone. 'See; that's the way it is truly.' So I looked, and
sure enough the little dear had represented it very cor-
rectly. I didn't say anything to influence her opinion, for
I wished to reach the limit of the thought. Selecting a
daisy whose stem had a most natural and pleasing curve, I
said, placing it beside hers: 'Which do you think the pret-
tier?' She looked at them both a minute, and then touched
the one I had just put down. ' But, Miss Goodyear, I had to
make mine this way, because it goes this way' — not feeling
satisfied with the picture, feeling it needed explanation, but
true to her principles. What could I say, but — 'Now, May,
make the prettiest one that you can see in your mind'?"
That child has been in school just nine months. "How
soon can children begin to idealize?"
" I have been so interested in watching a little baby girl
in her first attempts to make a pencil talk. Two months
ago she could make nothing but 'wiggles'; but every one,
to her vivid imagination, meant something. Today I heard
her say, 'Me make a itta Barba Badley; me make a itta
bare foot; me make her head and hands!' Peeping over
her shoulder, I saw what I inclose. The proportions are
not very bad, are they?
"I took my babies down to Peabody Museum, at Yale,.
•600 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
one morning last week. I wish that you could have been
with us. You would have noticed how much the form and
color lessons have opened the children's eyes to the pres-
ence of beauty in natural objects. I asked myself over and
over again how much they were indebted to the drawing
lessons for that morning's pleasure. They were delighted
to find in the department of minerals the cubes and prisms
that they had learned to know in school, and came running
to me, saying: 'Oh, Miss G., we know how Mother Nature
made prisms.'
"The beauty in the world is the child's heritage, and it
is nothing short of a moral wrong for any teacher to over-
look his claim to it."
But in endeavoring to lead the little children to an ex-
pression of the beautiful, the ideal that is within them, we
must remember that they are but little children, that their
ideals are children's ideals.
We must not attempt to lead them at once to high art,
but rather lead them to express their most beautiful
thought, and then endeavor to lead them higher in thought
and in expression, by presenting to them objects of beauty
as well as of interest.
Perez has given a very good study of the sense of ma-
terial beauty in children, and of the steps by which the
-aesthetic is reached, in his psychological study, "The First
Three Years of Childhood." He says:
"At the end of the first month, or toward the middle of
the second, the fixity of expression, the sustained attention,
the smile, the automatic gestures of the head, arms, and
legs, which we notice in children when they see before
them brightly colored or luminous objects, or objects
moved briskly about, do not appear to signify anything
more than the pleasure resulting from very exciting sensa-
tions. At this period also the sight of a candle, or any-
thing of pronounced color, will cause starts and tremblings
and babblings, which are the child's ordinary expression of
joy, admiration, or desire. For some time already the
sight of his feeding bottle, his nurse's breast, his parents
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION. 6oi
and friends, will have evoked from the child analogous
cries, gestures, and attitudes. During the first month,
therefore, we may assume that the child confuses the beau-
tiful with what he likes. The child is at the stage of the
first purely animal emotions, the accumulation of which has
produced the hereditary instinct called aesthetic. We are
already able to affirm that the intensity of these visual
pleasures is in relation to the individual impressionability^
and we can perhaps also vaguely foresee the degree of the
future development of this force. Psychologists, however,
must observe extreme caution and reserve in their diag-
noses, for these first indications have only a very limited
object; they only bring into evidence the feeblest of the
elements of which the sesthetic sense will eventually be
composed; besides which, inherited tendencies, especially
when precociously displayed, are apt to become very medi-
ocre in quality.
"Let us study a child at the age of ten months. A
great number of visual perceptions have become associated
in his brain with the admiration, joy, sympathy, and desire
which the sight of anything good or pleasant awakens in
him; nevertheless, in spite of some progress which he has
made in the habits of imagining, comparing, abstracting,
and generalizing, it seems that the legacy of the ideal in-
herited from his parents has not yet become amplified.
The aesthetic pleasure of admiration and purely sensual
pleasures seem still blended together. I give a cake to a
child of nine months; he reddens with emotion, and his
whole being is agitated; he stretches out his hands eagerly,
and carries the cake to his mouth with the most uncon-
cealed delight. I then present him with a plaything, — his
sister's doll; his delight and admiration are shown at first
by the same signs as before; but very soon discovering that
this charming object is only good to be looked at and han-
dled, he confines himself to enjoying it with the two senses
of sight and touch, and presently even invites me to share
his pleasure. Here we have a sentiment less egotistical, or
rather, an egotism which takes him out of himself, and
'602 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
which the very nature of the object has led the child to
-experience. We can see in this a progress, though very
slight, of the aesthetic sense.
"The idea of proportion and suitability, which is wholly
an intellectual perception, takes longer to form itself than
the discernment of expression, which is almost sensory.
The attitude of these little children in the presence of peo-
ple whose faces are unknown to them, seems to indicate
this. They are attracted at first sight by certain faces,
which also please adults; and other faces, which do not
please us, seem also to frighten and repel them. But the
readiness with which they become reconciled to the latter,
provided they discover in them signs of benevolence, and
the open readiness with which they withdraw their favor
from the others if they only find coldness in them, author-
ize us in supposing that if hereditary influences, and, up to
a certain point, personal experience, dispose the child to
feel the charm of a beautiful face, of a harmonious arrange-
ment of form and color, a stronger tendency makes it capa-
ble of understanding and feeling the true expression of
sentiments which are not very complex. Even with adults
expression ranks before beauty of proportion. The best-
proportioned face, if wanting in expression, says nothing
to us; whereas the most irregular features, even the most
repelling, if lighted up with expression, interest and please.
It is not surprising, then, that to children the intellectual
elements of the beautiful should be subordinated to the
Sensory ones, or even entirely absent.
"We have now come to a fresh stage in the slow evolu-
tion of the aesthetic sense. The child is eighteen months
old; his mind is stored with a considerable number of per-
ceptions, more or less well differentiated and generalized.
He has made and has heard made, quantities of judgments
implying a conception of the beautiful; and this term, often
used in his hearing, may have assumed the form of an
elementary abstraction. But how undetermined still and
fluctuating is this idea in his mind! To him the beautiful
.still means only what is pretty ; but it is also what is nice,
ART IN EARLY EDUCATION. 603
and in both cases it is the concrete expression of the knozvn.
"Thus we see that the dominant elements in the child's
sense of beauty are the primary judgments and sentiments,
or those immediately derived from them which make up
his young personality.
"Children begin by feeling pleasure and admiration for
isolated objects, and so much the more as they appear to
them to be good or pleasant. The measure of the appro-
bation does not go beyond their familiar experiences. Of
masses they only perceive the general bulk; of harmonies
and in art, only the colors and the most salient points.
The ideality transmitted through ancestors develops ac-
cording to the laws of general evolution, adapting itself
gradually to more distant objects, analyzing and combining
them more and more. The more persons and objects recall
real connections and distinct associations of agreeable and
intense sensations, the more we may say that the sense of
the intellectual, sense of the beautiful, or ideality, has pro-
gressed." *
But now to aid still farther in the art development of
the child, we may appeal not only to his sense of and desire
for the beautiful, but also to his creative activity. We all
recognize the insight of Father Girard, when he says :
"Creative imagmation shows itself at a very tender age;
for if the little child likes to give proof of his strength by
destroying, he also delights in producing, after his own
fashion, things new and beautiful. See how he arranges
his little soldiers, his toy horses and sheep, etc.; how he
rejoices in new combinations; and he calls his mother, that
she too may share in his pleasure."
The distinguished French professor of psychology, Mr.
Henri Martin, advocates the study and practice of art, be-
cause it has an incomparable educative power. The beau-
tiful is essentially order and harmony. From the imagina-
tion and the mind, this order and this harmony pass into
the heart, and soon manifest themselves outwardly by ele-
gance and by grace; a just proportion is seen in movements,
* "Childhood,"' by Bernard Perez.
604 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and finally is again found in actions. Good taste easily
takes the form of self-respect. Is it not well known that
art softens public and private manners? There are faults
and immoral tendencies which a spirit accustomed to live
in the atmosphere of beauty will not know how to conceive,
and the idea of which it could not harbor.
Froebel says, "The tru^ origin of man's activity and
creativeness lies in his unceasing impulse to embody out-
side himself the divine and spiritual element within him."
Believing in this most devoutly, he could conceive of no
greater mission than to promote this activity through edu-
cation.
Still farther he says, "Indeed, art alone can truly be
called free activity." "The beautiful is the best means of
education for childhood, as it has been the best means for
the education of the human race."
Very simply and in accordance with the child nature,
the little ones may be led to observe; beautiful objects
may be presented; every exercise should lead the children
higher, and then they should be led to express. This will
many times be an expression not of what they see, but of
what is in their minds and hearts. Try therefore to make
every exercise in some way a stepping-stone to the eleva-
tion of the spirit. Give to them nature, but do not deny
them art. Free them from the commonplace; give them
things of beauty; let every occupation tend toward the
beautiful, according to the laws of the highest art. Lead
the imagination out by the suggestion of pleasant and beau-
tiful thoughts, — by word pictures, by poetry, thus adding
art to art; from these will come the expression, and thus
the child will receive his birthright,— a power to enjoy and
to create beauty.
THE LITTLE ARTIST.
This child would like to be
A draughtsman, as you see.
Child strength seems nothing, or but very small;
But least things always some great outcome show.
All things around, the greatest things we know,
Come forth from germs hid in the world's great all.
From nothing comes the river, waterfall,
A TRIBUTE. 605
The sun and stars, with all their light and glow,
When God's voice bade unlovely darkness go,
And cease to wrap the world in misty pall.
' Be faithful in the least," did He not say?
And would you turn a dull or deafened ear
Unto a truth that is your child's heart cry?
Or do you think that truth is otherwise today?
Let it be work to you most grave and dear,
To cherish forces that unseen do lie.
If yon child learns, from anything he makes.
To study, somewhat, things that lie around,
Follow creative voice whene'er it wakes.
The building of a rich, new world he's found.
A TRIBUTE.
AGNES M. FOX.
(Read before the Philadelphia Society of Froel)el Kindergartners,
April 22, 1893.)
In all ages, 'mongst all people,
There are searchers after truth — *
Always some who thirst for knowledge;
And each searcher finds, in sooth,
( That the truth for which he's seeking
Is an endless, endless chain.
And although his hand one link grasps,
Countless links beyond remain.
To all ages, 'mongst all people,
Noble leaders have been sent.
But so slow is wisdom's progress.
And so subtle is truth's bent,
That the hand-grasps of the many
Loosen ere the task's begun,
And where multitudes should wrestle.
There is found the toiling one.
Eighteen hundred years and over
Came to earth a wondrous mind:
Meek and lowly was his bearing;
And his teaching — Seek, if find.
Sweet and solemn lessons taught he,
From a bird, a flower, a tree,
Or a little child, so helpless,
Vol. 6-37
5o6 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Sitting on the mother's knee.
Oft he said, Become as children,
Would you all the mystery know.
And we ponder o'er that saying,
As they pondered years ago.
For we'd have our children children,
And ourselves would children be.
In the word's great depth of meaning
Which we plead for light to see.
We today meet to pay homage
To a man well known to fame.
Year by year his worth seems greater.
And more honored is his name.
But a weary time he wandered
Sadly, from the world apart,
Striving, longing to give utterance
To a great truth in his heart.
Motherless, he sought Nurse Nature,
And she listened as he told
AU his anguish, all his sorrow.
All the yearnings of his soul.
Gently by the hand she led him,
Led him where the children played
On the green with flowers sprinkled,
'Neath the linden's ample shade.
In his own she placed a child's hand:
Let this child your master be;
He will guide you, he will lead you,
Soon a wondrous truth to see.
Well, we know the story's sequel —
How a great light dawned sublime.
Which will shine through all the ages.
Long as there is truth and time.
Let us grasp this mighty truth chain;
There are links, and links beyond;
Let us hold it, never tiring.
Till its wondrous length is run.
But a guide we need to light us,
For the way's untried and wild:
Let us walk, with reverent footsteps.
In the path made by a child.
HENRIETTA GOLDSCHMIDT ON "THE ETHICAL
INFLUENCE OF WOMEN IN EDUCATION."
THE above inscription was written over the greet-
ing which was forwarded during the past year to
the World's Congress of Representative Women,
by Henrietta Goldschmidt, the organizer of the
Leipsic Society for Family and Volks Training. The
greeting was embodied in an elaborately printed docu-
ment, the title-page of which bore the symbolic sphere,
cube, and cylinder of the monument erected to Froebel, and
also stamped with those greater monuments to his earnest
life, aphorisms from his pen. The greeting is printed in
both German and English, and reveals the spirited enthu-
siasm which rested upon its author, and which has been
called the Holy Ghost of the Froebellian doctrine. This
document fully expresses the appreciation in which Henri-
etta Goldschmidt, representing a large society of earnest
workers, holds the words, works, and prophecies of Froebel,
which are now being brought into demonstration by the
women of both Europe and America. This greeting was
one of those warm hand-clasps which were exchanged be-
tween the continents, through their representative women,
during the past year.
It is fitting to the April season, when annual respect is
rendered Froebel by his inspired disciples and followers, to
reprint some of the vital paragraphs from this address, and
to extend the appeal for a revival of true motherhood to
the many who were not present at the gathering of famous
women to whom it was addressed. Through the courtesy
of the author we have a supply of the document greeting,
and will gladly forward copies to anyone desiring the same.
The following excerpts are taken from the paper:
"It is most certainly my opinion that Friedrich Froebel
deserves to be named a liberator of the female sex from the
fetters of indolence, of prejudice, and of ignorance, and as
6o8 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
such he will be hailed by later generations. The Baroness
von" Marenholtz-Btilow, who died this year, says: 'The love
of mankind must become a religious rite for the female sex
in rearing childhood and in fostering the divine spark hid-
den in children's souls.'
"Are we mindful of this when occupied with Froebel's
work of education? Do we address ourselves to those who,
as mothers, are the prospective educators of their ozvji chil-
dren? Do we appeal to the consciences of young women to
make their hearts susceptible and mature for the great task
they have to fulfill in the circle of their own family? Do
we liberate the mother's activity from the ligatures of the
instinctive? Do we appeal to the future mother with the
words, 'Come, let us live for our children'? No, and again
no!
"We train nurses and nursery governesses to supply the
place of a mother, and even there where she is still existent
and where circumstances allow her the exercise of her vo-
cation. It is true we speak of an educational help for the
mother; but in reality a kindergartner who has attended a
good seminary is better prepared and fitted for the task of
educating than the mother herself, however accomplished
she may be in languages and arts.
"The most ideal, the most responsible, the most difficult
vocation — the vocation of educating the future generation
— is still executed by the women and mothers of our times
in the same instinctive, passive manner as it was a thousand
years ago. If the manner of educating has indeed im-
proved at all, we owe this progress and this pleasing ap-
pearance not to woman's better understanding of her edu-
cational and maternal vocation, but to the involuntary
influence of men advanced in knowledge and science, and
not a little to the influence of the youngest, the fertile
pedagogue Friedrich Froebel!
"For truly it would become me but little to misjudge
the great importance gained by the kindergartens and the
training of kindergarten teachers for national and family
education! I should have to indicate a quarter of a century
HENRIETTA GOLDSCHMIDT. 609
of my own life as wasted and lost, if I taxed at too low a
standard the humane, practical, and also educational worth
of kindergartens and kindergarten teachers. The associa-
tion founded by me in 1871 for family and national edu-
cation has in its public kindergartens in the course of time
provided many thousands of children with the benefits of
an education consonant with nature and rich in blessings.
In the twenty-two years of its existence more than five
hundred kindergarten teachers have left our seminary, a
number of whom are employed in America, partly as con-
ductors of kindergartens, partly as governesses in families.
"I might confine this address to the statement of our
activity, and show you what our association has attained in
the space of twenty years, and in what manner not only the
form of the master, but also his ideas from which the form
proceeded, are realized in our institutions.
"Every kindergarten can be a model kindergarten if
conducted in a loving and sensible manner. Everything
depends upon the personality of the conductress. It is
almost the same thing,' though not quite the same, as re-
gards the seminaries for kindergarten teachers. In this
institution the greatest result is attained when the unselfish
work of an association conducted by women can pay every
possible regard to the individuality of the scholars and to
their former schooling, and by a general scientific instruc-
tion may complete and support the particular branches of
education.
"The association for family and national education at
Leipsic possesses a house of its own, besides a boarding
house for non-resident pupils. The association does not
differ materially in its institutions from other Froebel asso-
ciations existing in Germany, but it is as yet the only one
in our Fatherland that has established a high school for
female pupils where the daughters of respected families in
easy circumstances can prepare themselves for the task of
education in their own families or in the service of human-
ity. This high school is the lyceum for ladies. The pro-
fessional education of woman as educator within her family
6lO KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
must be considered as equal in importance to man's edu-
cation.
"But no man confines himself, nor dare confine himself,
to that science which his particular profession requires; the
medical man not only studies natural philosophy, the law
student not only jurisprudence, the divine not only the
sacred writings and their commentaries, the philologist not
only different tongues, but each becomes more closely ac-
quainted with his special profession when by studying his-
tory, literature, and philosophy he gains clearness on the
position that his particular science occupies within the
whole field of knowledge. The young women of those
classes that are in the fortunate position to be able to pre-
pare for the 'task of educating,' are not to content them-
selves with only Froebel's occupations and pedagogy, nor
with pedagogy in general. History, literature, history of
art, psychology, and natural philosophy belong to the plan
of instruction of an institution for preparing reasoning hu-
man beings for the most ideal, most difficult, and most
responsible profession.
"Two years,— from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
year, — spent at such an institution, where "knowing and
performing, understanding and practicing" go hand in
hand, where the intellectual refinement seeks its perfec-
tion in the characteristic of human and womanly senti-
ments— what a renovation of our family life must be the
consequence! How quickly would the vanities, the empty,
hollow phantoms, vanish and yield to an active participa-
tion in the great problems of our social life! For what
woman who has thus attained consciousness of her own
knowledge, sentiments, and thoughts, but would offer her-
self for the service of mankind, should she be denied rear-
ing children of her own or should they have already out-
grown her direction!
"But another thing is needful: not only to consider the
need of the poor, but also the need of the rich. Neither
Pestalozzi nor Froebel taught and preached alone to the
'poor.' Pestalozzi says to the child of rich parents: 'Poor
HENRIETTA GOLDSCHMIDT. 6ll
child! you are no better off than the child of poor parents;
your mother has no time for you, either; today she is going
to a party; tomorrow she will entertain company herself;
the day after she may be in no good humor,' and so on.
In the same manner we say to the daughters of rich fam-
ilies: 'Poor girl! how quickly the time will come when you
will feel no satisfaction in your busily idle life, in the diver-
sions of society, in your dilettant life, and in the enjoyment
of all possible arts! Give your life some aim, and thereby
the support you require within and without your family.'
" May the Congress of Women at Chicago, that gives
the German pedagogue Friedrich Froebel its special sym-
pathy, also accept with sympathy the statements of a
woman worker for his educational work, of one who points
less to what she has accomplished for this work than to
what is still to be accomplished in future in this field. The
name of 'Friedrich' has become popular and familiar to
all nations through two German men. The centenary anni-
versary of Friedrich Schiller's birth in 1859, and the cen-
tenary anniversary of Friedrich Froebel's in 1882, 'which
sounded with solemn tones of joy through all lands, moving
all hearts, were witness of a really religious enthusiasm
confined to no nationality and to no sect.' The women
assembled at Chicago are also begged to accept my sisterly
greetings in the sense and spirit of the most humane of
pedagogues, and to recognize their mission in helping to
advance the empire of peace, concord, and unity among
nations; the love of mankind will then become a sacred rite
for the female sex in fostering childhood and in exciting
the divine spark hidden in the infant's soul."
A PLEA FOR GREATER KNOWLEDGE OF THE
CHILD.
GRACE A. WOOD.
HAVE you ever read the beautiful legend of "Vi-
neta," that phantom city lying hidden from sight
beneath the waves? If you have, you know how
at rare intervals the whole city, with its towers
and cupolas, rises above the waves and is seen by men, while
at other times is heard only the muffled tones of buried
.bells, telling of hidden treasures. And ever the sea rolls
on above it, bringing to the shores of the uninitiated no tid-
ings of that spirit land.
I fancy if ever our ears had caught but the faintest sound
of those far-off bells, or our eyes had seen but the dimmest
outline of the beautiful city, we would wander up and down
the shore, led ever by the hope that one day we should be
rewarded with a clearer sound of the distant bells and a
more perfect vision of the wondrous city. Yet do we ever
think of the buried world that lies hidden from sight in the
life of a child? of the thoughts and desires and motives un-
dreamed of by us?
And if one day a word or a look should reveal it sud-
denly to us, would we instantly realize our responsibility,
and, looking to the Divine for strength and wisdom, strive
at once to give them, from out our own hearts, just the an-
swering word or look which would help and strengthen
them in their hour of need? Are we each daily studying
the child — ^not what some one else has said about him, but
the living reality? for of a truth, only the child will reveal
the child to us. Often will we find the pet theory we have
treasured long, hurled to the ground by the experiences
gained in a single hour spent with a child.
The garment we have woven in hours of quiet study and
thought, when tried on the living form is found to be only
KNOWLEDGE OF THE CHILD. 613
a poor misshapen thing, and again we are made to realize
that only that which is done in the very presence of the
little wearer is of use to either of us. And right here I
would beg only those to enter our kindergartens who can
bring to them — yes, and hito them — their hearts and souls;
and then having entered, go forward as independent, living,
thinking women, led by a little child into the light.
Do not misunderstand me. I would that each should
carefully study the life history of education and educators,
and gather, from all times and climes, thoughts that in their
goodness and greatness have helped to mold and shape the
lives of men and nations! But do not stifle or ignore the
great gift God has bestowed upon each of us, — the right of
independent thought and action; otherwise we are but life-
less echoes in the corridors of time.
Recall for a moment the history of the church, which I
think has a message for us. While it was led and guided
by the letter of the law it was in darkness, suffering from
narrowness, bigotry, and a living death; but later, when it
became filled with and guided by the spirit, it came out into
the light and into a healthful, living life. If our kindergar-
tens are not in the night, led by the letter, are we confident
that they are filled with the spirit and guided by it? Let
us honor all men great and good, but be led by none.
Let us use all earthly lights to dispel the darkness and
gloom about us, but rely only upon "the true Light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The past few months have altered the face of educa-
tional history in America as well as on the continent. We
do not now refer to the progression or the evolution which
has become manifest in this department. We refer to
epochs that have been historically closed by the death of
several eminent leaders, or, to use a more just term, reform-
ers. In the more immediate department called the "new
education," these pioneers have invariably stood for inter-
national reform. The German and French spirit has been,
through their efforts, transferred to our American school-
rooms. They have sought to bridge the nations who con-
ceive great reforms, and the nation which offers opportunity
for testing reforms. Through faith and inspiration they
have canceled the doubts and ignorances of the multitudes
of two continents, and established a standard for every
schoolhouse in the land, which standard combines inter-
national ethics, histories, and philosophies into one common
pedagogy. This standard is placed, and the new epoch will
be one of less revolution, but of more uninterrupted vigi-
lance and conscious forward effort. The present gener-
ation will fulfill the demands of the present epoch. Every
individual teacher and scholar, journalist, parent, even legis-
lator, has his quiet duty to perform, in fulfillment of the
reform which the epoch just closed has bequeathed him.
The attitude assumed by many educational journals is
that of monitor and general "prodder." it is assumed that
teachers are indifferent to their work, ignorant of standards,
unaware of the responsibilities and duties of such a high
calling, and limited by natural depravity, in all such vital
qualities as culture, spontaneity, and resources. In short,
the homogeneous mass known as " schoolma'ams" are reck-
oned a bad lot. The editorial notes of such journals ex-
EDITORIAL NOTES. 615
press, in substance, this patronizing attitude of press to
teacher. The following samples are taken from current
issues: "Are you going to read a book on teaching this
month?" "Nature Study is the new fad; look it up or you
will be left behind." "Are you wearing the same gown and
ribbons you wore in September? Is anything good enough
for school? Don't you know that you ought to look your
prettiest as you ought to do and be your best in the school-
room? There's an inspiration sometimes in a new dress or
a fresh ribbon."
What is the function of the school journal? Is it not
the same as that of the daily or weekly press, the religious
or literary periodical? The press, of whatever department
of the world's work, should do the double duty — first, of
recording what is being done from day to day; second, of
upholding certain standards for future effort or policy, in
given directions. The school journal should record the best
work being done in the schools, should present the newer
methods that are daily being born in every schoolroom, and
should inspire its readers to attain the standards ever held,
before them in its columns. If the rural teacher is slack in
garb, she needs a loftier incentive than merely that of ap-
pearing pretty. The editor or educator owes it to her that
she be given food for the inner culture which she no doubt
sincerely craves. If the city teacher finds no time to read
the new volume on pedagogics, it is the privilege of the
educational journal to provide her a clear, sound review of
that book — such a one as will arouse her soul to its mean-
ings and values. Even though she read the book under the
sarcastic lash of the would-be progressive educational ed-
itor, who knows that she has even tasted the flavor of its
kernel or assimilated its sweet nourishment? Books are
too often urged upon the public that sales may be increased.
This accusation has been so frequently found valid against
educational journals, that teachers succumb to natural sus-
picion, and say to themselves: "It is no sign it is as good
as they say because it is printed in black and white."
One of the few remaining members of the Concord
6l6 KINDERGARTiEN MAGAZINE.
school of philosophy was recently asked: ""Why do you not
write a book? Are you never possessed with the desire to
become an author?" "My young friend," came the pro-
found answer, " if in my lifetime I become the means of
bringing a few people to the feet of the great literary mas-
ters, I shall have accomplished more than if I wrote a hun-
dred books. Nothing can be better said than has already
been said. It is greater to help people to read books, than
to write them. Commentators who introduce men and
women to the masters, open the door to divine fellowships."
Teachers, kindergartners, parents, students, fraternize with
the master thinkers through their books, and that purifying
inspiration will follow which alone can eliminate sordid
weaknesses, ignorances, and unilluminated effort.
The May number of the Kindergarten Magazine will
be a Pestalozzian number, to which contributions will be
made by Professor W. S. Monroe of Leland Stanford Uni-
versity, C. W. Bardeen of the School Bulleti?i, Frl. Annette
Schepel of Berlin, Elizabeth Harrison of Chicago, and oth-
ers. Single copies of this number can be supplied at the
usual price.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
A TOAST.
The kindergartners — God bless them! Wnat would our
child-gardens be without them?
Child-garden! What word can more fitly describe the
assemblies of baby human plants that daily, in our great
cities, gather around the teachers in whom the mother-
spirit has been grafted with that of the wise gardener?
From this combination we have that tenderest, wisest,
most watchful of beings, the guardian angel.
She watches over her garden plot with solicitous care.
What queer little plants does she receive into her pro-
tection: little ones dying for sunshine and air; some starv-
ing for food, or choking with thirst; others cramped,
dwarfed, withered, or leafless; or again, those of super-
abundant growth rank with heavily scented flowers, preco-
cious and forward, products of the world's unnatural hot-
house.
Then does this gentle gardener bring out into the sun-
shine of confidence the pale-leaved, cellar-grown plants;
puts into the shadow the ones forced beyond nature; grafts*
upon this one love of truth; prunes from that one the too-
luxuriant growth of exaggeration.
Watering the dry one with words of love and encour-
agement, feeding another with fertilizing products for
thought, she moves about, carrying health to all. She
gently trains up the crooked stalk which bends toward
idleness, provides a prop of steadfastness for shy vines;
and finally we see the pale plant growing green and hearty;
the withered one moist and tender; buds and blossoms
appearing upon those that were starving; the crooked
straightening up; and the shy, while clasping their props
with sturdy tendrils, nodding a wide-open flower in our
faces.
6l8 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Her collection of queer little plants is a thriving, bud-
ding garden in the perfection of healthy life.
But does anyone, except these guardian angels them-
selves, know what a wealth of patience and long-suffering
this life demands?
How not the least of their watchfulness must be exer-
cised over self, that the evil weeds of anger, impatience,
sarcasm, distaste, may not show even the first leaf?
Let our hearts open wide to these honest workers. How
often a kind word, heartfelt thanks, sympathetic interest or
congratulation, might feed their inspiration and effort!
It is in their care our tiny plants have been placed, and
many of the sweet-scented blossoms, much of the rare
color, the sturdy growth, the luscious fruits that delight
our parents' eyes in our home gardens, have been induced
and fostered to perfection by these child-gardeners, the
guardian angels of the kindergartens. — Millicent Olmsted.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's "MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. VIII.
(In preparing these sketch studies of Froebel's "Mother-
Play Book," the writer has had the following points in mind:
To help the many who desire an acquaintance with this
JDook, to study it themselves; to impel by suggestive ques-
tions that self-help which makes independent students; to
indicate the more direct manner of reading and applying
its inner meaning; to remove the mistaken impressions
which have maintained that the book was either irrelevant,
formless, or unpedagogic; to extend the benefits to be de-
rived from its profound illustrations of nature and human
nature; and above all else, 'to lead kindergartners and par-
ents to personally investigate Froebel's method of child
study and child culture. If these articles have succeeded
in creating an impulse toward questioning or renewed in-
vestigation on the part of any reader, they have fulfilled
their purpose. It is the further desire of the writer to help
answer questions, in the June number of the magazine.
Will those who are following the articles closely, kindly
forward such questions as are not self-answerable, during
the coming month? The inquiries which have heretofore
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 619
been met in private correspondence, will also be answered
in the magazine. If any students desire that the study be
carried on another year, will they kindly indicate the same
in writing?)
Tlie Garden Gate, The Little Garde7ier, The Bridge. — When
vainly boasting of the marvelous growth of the kindergarten
movement in our country, does it occur to us that we have
as yet demonstrated but one-half of its principle? We are
caring for the children, are developing, are unsealing lips,
opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. We
are doing this mainly indoors, and the kindergartner's in-
computable labor, zeal, and ceaseless effort to bring the
outer world into the kindergarten has made it possible to
get such beneficent results. Will it not be a lightening of
her burdens and an increase to her joys when she is able to
care for a garden with the children? The essential and
primary condition of this nature training is contact ivitli
nature. We may take the children to the public park once
a year, may spend an occasional afternoon in the country
ourselves, seeking rest and revival. We may note a bird's
nest or pluck a few spring twigs, and gather gay leaves on
some lovely autumn morning; but none of these may take
the place of protracted, nurturing service in a home garden.
These do not furnish the expanding experiences which come
through the repeated, daily contact with the successive
epoch-making stages of nature's growths.
Observe the song and choice picture of the "Garden
Gate." What child of humanity is not fascinated by the
inclosed garden, with its variegated beauty, perfection,
variety, orderliness, perfumes, colors, forms, and fulfill-
ments! Have you read, in books of travel, romance, or
rhyme, descriptions of wonderful gardens, and did you
note what a poetic, uplifting character these added to the
tale? When you were a mere child did you never visit the
old homestead garden of grandparents, or the majestic
grounds of some distinguished estate? Have you no pic-
ture in your youthful experiences, of neat hedgerows, trim
tulip beds, and labyrinthian walks among the floral inhabit-
620 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ants of some quaint, quiet garden? Does a broad-acred
farm produce the same effect in childish experience as a
small garden, full to the fence with shrubs, plants, and
flowers, and cool shade? Why not? Have you in travel-
ing ever peered into one of those mysteriously hedged gar-
dens of southern France which poets so fondly reveal? Or
have you suddenly come upon one of those inner garden
courts which the Spaniards and Creoles of our own country
delight in beautifying? Why did the mediaeval monks and
nuns frequently place, as their holy of holies, a beautiful
court garden and fountain in the inmost sanctuary of their
church home? Is there not an intuitional affection in the
hearts of men for these lesser Edens?
Let us tell the children more and more about beautiful
and historic gardens, making these the stage setting and
background of our stories. There was an instinctive pur-
pose on the part of our grandmothers, when they gathered
a nosegay from the garden, taking of every kind and bind-
ing all the variegated mass together. Arc not our window
boxes resuming the old-time profusion of many kinds and
colors massed together in nature's own order? The lan-
guage lesson which Froebel indicates in the explanation of
this song is clearly stated. Only when the child has expe-
rienced the great contrasting variety and noted these in
their nature setting, does he seek discriminating expression
in words. Why does the song emphasise the garden gate
and the inclosure which must ever guard the choice in-
mates? Is the gardener's function like that of the gate or
hedge, — to guard and protect? Why does the modern
unfenced city lawn take the place of the old-fashioned
garden?
During these spring months and the coming summer,
tell the city children stories of beautiful gardens. You say,
"But they know nothing about such things." It is the
attic child who glories in Cinderella and plumed prince, by
the divine right of that inner ideal which knows no bounds.
So the story of children wandering about among beds of
flowers, red and blue and white, where green vines climb
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 621
high and lilac bushes sway, will meet an instinct which
moves every child of nature. Read Longfellow's poem,
"Flowers." Recall other poems and descriptions of beau-
tiful gardens. Then play this little finger song with the
children, and let the romance of your own experiences
color the play.
Keep your eyes open, and some day you will find even
in the densest part of the city a quaint garden spot. Look-
ing down from the elevated train, we recently discovered a
vision of beauty, which has for many years been cherished
and cultured by a German octogenarian. When you find
such, take your children to look in upon it as they would
peep into a bird's nest. Another day, have secured an
invitation from the owner; take them inside. Be careful
that no child forms his impression of a garden from the
casual window box of the kindergarten. Present the whole
variegated, beautiful, living spot, either by means of story,
picture, or play, that he may conceive the impulse to wish
to be near or in such a place, to take care of such a place
— to be a gardener.
What added element is there in the song symbol of the
"Little Gardener," which was foreshadowed in the "Garden
Gate"? The following translation of the motto reveals the
original purpose more clearly:
Wouldst thou the childish heart unfold,
Close to the nurttire of life him hold.
Wouldst thou prepare him to cherish and love,
Show him the joy which such nurture provides.
The German word Lcbenipflcg is repeated in each line
of the original, and means distinctly the care yi?r life, never
the cares of life. This song is the great theme of Easter
fulfillment. Sincere care, voluntary labor, continuous ef-
fort, and childlike cherishing have their reward in the
bloom and blossom. Every flower heart is touched, and
renders up its golden perfection. The seed is translated
into its utmost possibility.
Pestalozzi's fable of "The Lime Tree and the King" will
suggest the spiritual application of this true gardening:
Vol. 6-38
622 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
"A king who was standing alone under a lime tree, was
struck by the beauty of its foliage, and exclaimed: 'Would
that my subjects held to me as these leaves hold to thy
branches!' The tree answered him: 'I am forever carrying
the sap of my roots to each of my leaves.'"
The inviting arbor rises above the garden, whence man
may enjoy the fruits of his labor, and on through the vista
of its arches is the church spire, to complete the picture
of the higher power over and above all. Paul planteth,
Apollos watereth, but God giveth the increase. Read care-
fully the closing stanza of the explanation to this song on
page 185, and note Froebel's charge to kindergartners.
Why is it appropriate in this Easter season to associate
the song of "The Bridge" with the two above? Is there
any connection to be made between the inner and outer,
the ideal and the real, the hereafter and the here, heaven
and earth? As the blossom just over the brook leads the
child on to a desire to cross it, that he may possess, so the
ideal beckons man on and on, and by faithful effort and
demonstration he realizes the fulfillment.
Read carefully Froebel's interpretation of the bridge,
and its application to humaii family life and religion. The
epigram of St. Paul, that "I die daily," is supplemented
here in the daily resurrection. — Amalie Hofer.
THE FROEBEL MONUMENT AT SCHWEINA.
Inquiry has been made concerning the erection of the
Froebel monument, which has come to embody great sym-
bolic meaning to his followers. Through the favor of the
publishers, Lee & Shepard, we are able to bring as our
frontispiece an illustration of the same, which appears in the
recent volume of Froebel Letters edited by A. H. Heine-
mann. Mr. Heinemann, writing from Boston, has also fa-
vored us with the following statement concerning the me-
morial:
"W. Middendorff and Baroness Marenholtz-Biilow made
collections shortly after the death of Froebel, but were not
able to raise a large sum for a memorial on. Froebel's grave.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 623
It was Middendorff who proposed to have a cube, cylinder,
and sphere erected. These were of common sandstone and
of small dimensions, as the means would not allow it other-
wise. In fall, 1 88 1, a committee was formed in the twin
cities of Hamburg-Altona, and Heinrich Hoffmann (who,
by the way, is perhaps at present the oldest of the disciples
of Froebel who sat at the master's feet) was elected chair-
man, the object being the collection of funds for the erec-
tion of a monument worthy of the great Kinder-Freund. It
was the general opinion that a more suitable design than
that proposed for the first monument by Middendorff could
not be found. They merely added a pedestal with the
bust of Froebel. That is the monument now standing on
Froebel's grave at the beautiful churchyard of the village of
Schweina. "In the thirty years that had passed away since
the death of Froebel, circumstances had changed; the Froe-
bel idea had successfully encompassed the world, his friends
had greatly multiplied, and money had been collected
freely, so that the monument could be finished in less than
a year. In the centennial year of his birth, on July 21, in
1882, the monument was unveiled.
"I do not remember this moment when the Froebel
tower upon the Cursdorfer Kuppe at Oberweissbach was
erected, and being a thousand miles away from my library
and study, I cannot look for information. But I'think it
was erected in 1883. The committee erecting it was com-
posed of Froebel disciples elected by the monument com-
pany. At the same time memorial tablets were fixed at the
parsonage where Froebel was born, at the foot of the Curs-
dorfer Kuppe."
FROEBEL BIRTHDAY LINES.
Froebel came to show the oneness
Of the head and hand and heart,
When by love they work together.
Each one doing well its part.
—M. E. P.
624
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
AN EASY ART LESSON
(But far reaching).
The great Founder of Christian civilization once told his
disciples to leave the Pharisees and doctors of the law in
their doomed conventional "church" or "temple," and
come with him (as "living stones") for a quiet walk (even
on the Sabbath day) into the fields of nature. And stop-
ping them before a lily, he said: "Consider the lily,
how it grows;" that is, reflect
carefully by what organic
methods and principles it
achieves its vital progress.
Let us "consider" this won-
derful object lesson of eter-
nal life, from foundation up-
ward.
First, we note a life force in
nature which no man can
create, but which lurks latent
(an intellectual and emotion-
al power) between the par-
ticles of otherwise dead or
static matter, ready to use
matter as its fulcrum or
agent, when conditions of
light, warmth, and moisture
are favorable to its purposes.
Second, whenever a special
germ ideal (such at> the seed
of lily, tulip, grape, etc.),
containing its own intellec-
tual and emotional formulae,
opens its life to union with
the mother life of nature, her
greater life is willing to bring
its special individual life to
expression and fruition. Each
(^
qPA^TDEALS;^f^^
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
625
seed is a condensed divine
ideal or poem, perfect and
potent wheresoever carried.
Third, under the guidance
or incentive of each healthy
"germ ideal," the life force
moves forward, not only to a
concrete revelation of itself
and the "germ ideal" (by
means of mobilized material
atoms), but also of eternal
principles and methods pur-
sued by nature throughout
her handiwork, — such as log-
ical order from cause to ef-
fect; continuity and repeti-
tion of effort toward definite
result, including definite di-
rection of motion toward that
result, with space and time
limitation, from beginning to
end of the movement ( wheth-
er vigorous and angular like
the Easter lily, graceful and
undulate like the tulip, or
playfully curling like the
\'ine); selection also of fit-
ting materials.
Fourth, careful relative
measure or meter, involving
delicate proportions, to defi-
nite standards and ratios of
extension.
Fifth, symmetry and balance of parts and measures.
Sixth, form — characteristic and constant for each indi-
vidual ideal or completed phase of individual expression,
through lineal, surface, or solid extension of the parts;
conic, oval, spheric, etc.
626 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Seventh, composition or arrangement of parts for total
effect, constituting beautiful design, and attaining unity in
balance and variety; the sentiment and intellect alike of
God shown.
Eighth, color, odor, and texture may still further an-
nounce the individual sentiment of each germ ideal. And
finally, light rising over it in the morning and setting over it
at evening, may add a constantly varying play of shade,
while out of the perfect and completed ideal ripens a fam-
ily of her new child germs, each containing the immortal
ideal and capable of perpetuating the divine miracle!
From this we draw the important lesson that materialism
is death, while spirituality is life; for matter is but the agent
or medium through which to manifest divine ideals on earth.
We must, like good gardeners, bring these divine ideals
(committed to our care) into vital union with nature's will-
ing life forces, under proper conditions of intelligent "light,"
affectionate "warmth," and even the "moisture" of chasten-
ing tears. We must give them continuous and repeated
movement in the direction of the ideal, selecting appropri-
ate material to record and retain the advance; measure,
proportion, and properly balance the relative parts; develop
each in order; evolve and correlate individual and organic
form and composition expressive of our ideal; and finally,
give out to others that color, fragrance, and peculiar texture
which is the exponent of our sensibility toward them and
also their sensibility toward us. Lastly, under the light
thrown upon our work by Heaven, and the peculiar angle
of observation of each spectator, let us accept the different
"shadings" and "points of view" inevitable, so long as in
Heaven's sight we produce and perpetuate divine beauty.
What is true of the art of life is equally true and appro-
priate for the life of art, whether optical, literary, dramatic,
musical, or other. All materials must be made subject to
mind and emotion for the expression of aesthetic ideals and
principles, thus perpetuating eternal beauty.
Material and instrumentation are nothing till they ex-
press the organic ideality of each individual and nation, and
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 627
no school is truly an art school, nor method truly an art
.method, which does not vitally and organically cultivate the
spirit of beauty, nationality, and individuality before the
dead machinery of mimicry, technicality, and mannerism.
Unless the young, therefore, of America are kept alive, in-
dividual, thoughtful, and constructive in their education, in
deep sympathy with the spirit of nature and national char-
acter, and keenly awake to the message and beauty of their
own times and materials, we can never have a fresh, inter-
esting, and permanently valuable national art or national
life. — John Ward Stiuison, Snft Nciv York Institute for Artist-
artisans.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL CURRICUqjM.
The following sturdy paragraphs are taken from a paper
recently read before a state teachers' association by Mr. P.
K. Pattison, Colorado:
"Current educational thought maintains that the truer
position is that of the disciples of Herbart, who lay down
this primal proposition: The foundation of education must
be rendered immovable by resting it upon growth in moral
character, as the purpose which serious teachers make first.
The tone of the educational press, the logic of recent events,
point to the early acceptance of this proposition.
"What then? Suppose that intellectual and moral cul-
ture are to be held as of at least a coordinate importance;
how will this affect the reconstruction of the course of
study? Mainly as to its subject-matter. No one, I think,
argues that the average school program is very rich and
noble in contents. It is mainly a collection of isolated, dry
facts, without vitality or directive and formative influence.
Arithmetic, 'the calculation of the profitable,' usurps the
foremost place. The attempt to master the form wherein
thought wraps itself, not the thought itself, engages too
much.of the pupil's time. As a result, he grows superficial,
trivial, devoid of exalted ideals, indifferent to truth. The
trend is not as strong as it should be toward a broad altruis-
628 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
tic manhood. The remedy lies in the reconstruction of the
course of study, so as to make its center, toward which the ^
mind of the child is constantly turned, 'those things which
are of the widest and most lasting importance, noble in con-
tent, developing both the moral and the intellectual being.
This, the reconstructionists say in general terms, is to be
accomplished by the study of man and nature. By the
study of man, they mean history, the record of his deeds;
literature, the record of his thoughts, his hopes and despairs,
his regrets and prophecies; and geography, the scenes of
his actions and the physical environment of mountain, sea,
plain, soil, and climate, which have constituted prominent
factors in his life on earth. By nature they mean the world
around him; that wonderful world of living, breathing
things; rocks, the records of ages, drops of water contain-
ing centuries of history and centuries of prophecy. These
be sonorous words assuredly. Stripped of the glamour of
rhetoric, what do they mean? Simply this: history with
geography, general literature, and nature study are to be made
the essential subjects of the course from its inception to its
close. Of these, history and literature have been selected
because they especially answer the condition required in the
proposed curriculum, being noble in content, developing
both the intellectual and moral being."
TELLING STAR STORIES TO KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN.
Feeling sure that an account of my experiences in lec-
turing on astronomy before the little folks might prove in-
teresting, I have determined to write a few lines on the sub-
ject. It is needless to remark that I have made the lectures
— or rather, talks — as simple as possible. I have succeeded
in holding the complete attention of the little ones during
the whole time. This is no easy matter, considering how
very small some of the kindergarten children are.
When lecturing before the Froebel Academy at Brook-
lyn, I told the children some of the legends of the stars,
and showed them how to find the stars for themselves.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 629
Many of the little ones talked to me during the lecture, and
asked me questions, and did not seem at all afraid of a lec-
turer. I had a chart of the constellation Orion, showing
the colored stars, the double stars, and the wonderful nebula
of Orion. During my lecture a little boy seated in the
front row, who had been admiring this chart for some time,
suddenly called out: "That's 'Ryan; I know him. Mother
showed him to me." At the end of the lecture I remarked:
" Now, children, when you are at home this evening you
must look out for these stars I have been telling you about;
and if your mother has a pair of opera glasses, ask her to
let you look through them." Immediately a little girl
called out: "My mother has a pair of opera glasses,"
whereat a boy on the other side of the room held up his
hand and waved it round triumphantly, saying: ''My mother
has two opera glasses." Fearful that a discussion might
follow this statement, as to other fortunate owners of opera
glasses, I hastened to relate the story of a shooting star.
This invariably holds the attention of the children, espe-
cially as I. have a chart of one of these fireballs, which the
children can watch while I am telling the story.
At one school, when I was describing the rapid flight of
a meteor through space, a little boy in the front row asked
me, excitedly, if it went as fast as a "choo-choo"; I pre-
sume he meant a train. I told him that it went ever so
much faster, for it traveled at the rate of twenty miles a
second. Then a little boy asked me if these shooting stars
"fell down and hurted people." I said they usually turned
into very fine dust, and that would not hurt anyone. At
this part of the lecture I usually describe some of the dust
sifting through an open window and landing on the top of
a book, when a careful housekeeper comes along and
brushes it off with a duster, little knowing that that dust is
part of a shooting star.
When I told this story at Jersey City, before some little
children, one boy, who was not quite four years old, listened
to every word, whilst his brown eyes opened wider and
wider. He remembered every word of it afterwards, and if
630 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
he manages to find any dust on a book or a table, he
delights in telling people all about the wonderful shooting
star, and that perhaps that dust was once a piece of shooting
star. He remembered all the stories of the stars, and can
find the great dipper and the little dipper, .and tell you the
story of the dragon which twines around them. I do not
think he will ever forget the legend of the Pleiades or the
seven little Indian boys; and he insists upon showing these
stars to his father, who, by the way, is my manager, — Major
Pond. The little, boy's name is Jim, but he calls himself
"Bim," and he is a wonderfully bright child for his age.
By the way, I was very much surprised at hearing, a day or
so after I had given this lecture in Jersey City, that when I
finished, a little girl cried. I anxiously inquired the reason,
and was amused at hearing that she cried because I did not
go on telling more stories.
Now I must confess I feel very much encouraged from
the success I have had with this experiment in talking on
astronomy to very little children. I have been able to in-
terest them in the constellations, shooting stars, colored
stars, double stars, and what stars are made of, besides tell-
ing them about the distance of the stars, and the difference
between a star and a planet. Now this may seem very sim-
ple, but it is surprising how few know even these simple
facts. If the little ones can be made to look for and love
the flowers of the sky, why should they not know them as
well as they learn to know and love the flowers of the earth?
— Mary Proctor.
SOME PLANT BABIES.
What is a nursery, children? You know well enough.
It is a room for the children. Yes, but it has another
meaning: it is also a place for tree children, where the little
trees are taken care of and nurtured until they are old
enough to be planted out in the world for themselves. In
one sense the whole earth is a big nursery for plant babies,
and there are many sweet and cunning ways in which they
are made comfortable, like our human babies.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 63 1
One very important thing for our babies is that they
should be kept warm; and they are covered with soft,
woolly blankets when they are taken into the open air, and
their little feet and hands and head are also wrapped in
something warm and fleecy. Now the big nurse. Mother
Nature, takes care of her flower and leaf babies in the same
way. You have all seen the pretty, delicate hepatica buds,
of white and pale blue, that look so tender and shy. Did
you ever notice that their outer leaves really answer the
same purpose as the baby's blankets? They are soft and
fuzzy, with thick, long hairs, and they wrap the buds care-
.fuUy from the keen, nipping winds of the early spring
days.
The baby ferns are also well wrapped up, — just as well,
indeed, as a small boy with his warm cap and mittens.
They have a nice habit of curling themselves, close and
tight, into little round balls, and going to sleep for a long
nap, — one that lasts the whole winter long, in fact. Their
heads are covered with a thick white woolly hood or
nightcap, which they do not throw off (for fern babies are
very quiet sleepers) until spring returns; then they wake,
and come out in fresh green, like the young leaves on the
trees. But you would not like to sleep so long as that, and
miss Thanksgiving and Christmas, and snowballing and
skating and sleighing, and all the lovely winter delights —
too many to count. That would never do for boys and
girls; it is only for quiet little leaf babies.
The bloodroot children are born later in the spring,
when the weather is milder, so they do not need such heavy
blankets; but they have the daintiest leaf cradles instead,
in which the silky white flower buds are tucked away like
an Indian baby, or papoose, in its cradle of bark.
These are only a few of the charming things in Mother
Nature's nursery, for she has a different way with each dif-
ferent baby, according to its needs. If you will only take
the trouble this spring to closely notice all the buds you
gather, you will learn some wonder secrets about plant
babies. — Ella F. Mosby.
632 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The cube, the cylinder, and the sphere
Everywhere in the world appear;
We see them when walking out of doors.
And when we buy things in the stores.
If you walk about indoors, at home.
You need not look far to find each one.
If you want a very nice place to look.
Go to the kitchen and visit the cook.
Today she's making the cookies sweet.
For the children of the house to eat.
On a board she rolls them smooth and pat;
This board has edges and faces flat.
N Why, it's like the cube, for it is able
To stand very still upon the table.
With a rolling-pin the dough is smoothed out;
Why, here is the cylinder, I haven't a doubt!
Now look on the stove, and there you see
The kettle that cooks the water for tea.
Though large and black it does appear.
Surely it's round, and much like the sphere.
Again, with its edges and corners, the stove
Looks very much like the cube we love.
For our three little playmates we're always looking
We can't do without them, even in cooking.
— Kate Stearns, Brookliiie, Mass.
THE TYPICAL PROGRAM APPLIED TO THE DAILY VICISSITUDE.
VI.
It is to be distinctly understood that these program
sketches are not offered as models, but merely as a record
of what has transpired in one particular kindergarten.
These sketches may serve the same purpose as a visit to a
kindergarten. The record cannot, of course, be kept cur-
rent to the season. The reading of the same will interest
the kindergartner who thinks as much about the work she
has done as that she intends doing, in order to harvest her
experience.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 633
The following transcript is taken from our program
book, for Thanksgiving: "What have zve to be thankful
for? If we love others how do we show it?" We began
Monday, December 4, with the Christmas thought, which
included as topics for consideration —
Humanity, Home, Family' Life. — Did Jesus come among
us as a beautiful angel with snow-white wings, out of the
sky? "No, but a little baby, just as we all were once."
The Motlier Love, Christ s Childhood. — "Did he love to
play?" Children thought not. Does he love to see chil-
dren play and work? "Yes." Then why should he not
have done the same in Iiis childhood? Make Jesus' child
life seem near and practical. Children now begin to feel
its nearness and beauty. We are all God's children if we
become Christlike.
For three weeks we have been living and growing in the
Christ and St. Nicholas thought. Every morning we have
given to the children some phase of it. The children in
turn are full of the Santa Claus idea; how shall we use the
two that the higher may help and lift up the lower?
The following is an outline of the story used for this
purpose:
Paul Schumann was a little boy whose mother took him
to church with her when she thought he was old enough to
feel the help it would bring into his life, — the beautiful
church, the soft footfalls, the heavenly music of the organ,
the chanting voices, the murmur of prayer, the earnest
voice of the minister, and the golden sunshine gleaming
through stained-glass windows. There were three of these
beautiful windows that Paul loved to gaze upon. The first
one he used to look at had upon it the picture of a lovely
baby boy in his mother's arms. It was a few weeks before
Christmas when Paul first went to the church with his
mother. " Mother, why is the picture of the pretty baby in
the church window?" Paul's mother tells him of the infant
Jesus as that night he climbs into her lap while they sit
before the fire. "From a baby he grew to be a little child
like you, Paul." Again in the church he is attracted to a
634 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
window upon which is the figure of a man, young like Paul's
father, and with a face so loving! There were children
about him, and his arms were outstretched and his hands
were extended over them. Paul looked upon this picture
many times. He asks his mother about it. She tells him
of Christ's life on earth as he went about doing good.
After this Paul notices still another picture upon the third
beautiful stained-glass window. It is that of an old man
with such a good, kind face,— like his grandfather, Paul
thought. The mother, when questioned, tells him that St.
Nicholas' great love for Christ led him to observe his birth-
day by giving tokens of love (little presents) to all the
children he could find. "It is the custom with some peo-
ple nowadays," said she, "when they have a birthday, to
remember their friends with gifts instead of waiting to
'receive presents." In Berlin, at the time Paul was a little
boy, the good fathers and mothers made their children gifts
upon Christ's birthday, and on Christmas morning the little
ones would find them in the shoes they had pulled off the
night before when getting ready for bed. Paul dreamed
Sunday night of good old St. Nicholas, who was such a
friend to children. He wished in his dream that St. Nich-
olas would bring him a nice gift. When he opened his eyes
in the morning and saw his shoe full of goodies, he thought:
"I wonder if St. Nicholas yet brings the little children gifts
from the sky." The mother comes in; Paul puts his query
to her. "How could he get into the house?" asks she; "the
windows and doors are fast at night." Paul looks at the
great open fireplace. "Down the chimney!" he exclaims.
The mother smiles. That day she tells the story to many
friends who come to spend the holiday with them, and from
this time all the little children in Berlin, and indeed in
many other places, say that St. Nicholas comes down the
chimney and fills the children's sabots, or shoes, as we call
them; but zve say he fills our stocki?igs, don't we? Later
we made the figure of Santa Claus (another name for St.
N'icholas, the children are told) very literal, to show that
we had dressed up our idea thus for our own pleasure, and
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 635
sang the rollicking song, "Up on the Housetop." Each
one of us is also a Santa Claus, for are we not making gifts
here in the kindergarten to surprise our kinsfolk and
friends? Baskets painted with holly berries and leaves
are made from the basin pattern of Prang's cardboard
modeling designs; beds, the framework of which is made
of peafowl quills, are dressed in tissue-paper valances,
counterpanes, bolsters, and canopies, and shaving cases
are decorated with Christmas mottoes upon which frisky
brownies disport themselves. Besides these, the useful pin-
cushion and needlebook were not forgotten.
January: The Borne, Neighborhood, Grocery. — From the
Christ thought we trace the great influence of the mother
element in humanity.
In the kindergarten, January 2: We have all had a long
holiday, spent at home or at the homes of our friends. Let
us talk this morning about our dear homes. "What do the
little children find to help or be busy about at home?"
Every little girl and boy has helped in some way. Maurice
has washed dishes, Cherry has helped get breakfast, Shelby
has carried kindling, Lillie has helped cook some of the
meals, Willie has dusted furniture, Phil has swept the pave-
ment; and so on with many of the others, each one eager
to tell of how he has been intrusted with some department
of the housework.
"Who helps most at home? What do father and mother
do? Do we love to help mother?" Our mothers do so
much for us! (Song from Miss Hill's book — " P'ather and
Mother's Care.") In our gift work we made furniture of
room to be cared for, as indicated in the illustration.
On the circle the kindergartner consulted with the dif-
ferent divisions of children as to what each division could
show of some kind of home work, the others telling what
the actions showed the work to be. Washing clothes, sew-
ing and sweeping and dusting, were given by the motions
with which the children had done the work at home. In
the working out of our thought, the story of "Charlotte and
the Ten Fairies" was a source of inspiration for individual
636 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
effort. For several days different phases of this idea were
used. It was a point of much interest to the children, as to
who had and who had not received the great gift of the ten
fairy workers hidden away in each of the ten fingers pos-
sessed by every little girl and boy with us.
The Neighborhood. — "What makes a neighborhood? Not
several houses near together, with a family in each, if the
people in each house had nothing to do with the people in
the other houses. What, then, is a neighbor?"
Children say, "Some little girl or boy who lives near
us?"
"Then you don't think a grown-up person who lives
near you a neighbor?" We talk of visiting our neighbors,
— naming our friends who live near us, — and gradually ex-
tend the boundaries of our neighborhoods, until Maurice
finally declared he had a good neighbor two miles off.
"But I like him a heap; just as much as if he lived real
close by" — with an air of deep conviction.
Said one of the teachers, "He lives near your heart,
Maurice;" and many now are of the opinion that a real
neighbor is one we love very much.
First point: Neighborhoods exist for general benefit.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT, 63/
"If the father were to build a house away out in the woods,
far distant from everyone, and take his family to live there,
what would be missed?"
The children think they would miss many little friends,
and the mother and father could not see so many kind
friends.
"Who come to our neighborhood?"
Friends and visitors to our homes; the doctor, the min-
ister, the milkman, the postman, the grocery boy, the paper
carrier, and sometimes the expressman bringing us nice
boxes of things. How different this is from living all
alone, or from not having anything to do with others!
Second point: ''Could we live to ourselves alone, or do
we have to help other people and other people help us?"
Some think living out in the woods would be very nice;
but as father and mother cannot be doctor, postman, paper
carrier, and grocer themselves, we think it is better that
different people choose to do different things to help one
another, and so we like to live near together for the com-
mon benefit.
With the Second Gift in the sand table the children
much enjoyed the making of a village, a village to them
being a large neighborhood. Besides the many homes, a
church, a grocery, and father's store (or place of work)
were shown. Many people (sticks placed upright in the
sand) were going to church; others to the grocery. The
fathers started out in the morning to go to work, and there
were numerous children in the yards of the different houses.
On the circle, village street and game of "Going visiting."
The Grocery. — In nearly every neighborhood is a gro-
cery. Children often go to the grocery for mother. "When
they take money to pay for goods, and they have more
than enough to pay for them, can they tell how much
change they should get back?" With our hands we count
by fives and tens, — nickels, dimes, and quarters, — the sep-
arate fingers representing the pennies. The grocer is our
neighbor. He has a family of little ones, and he works for
them by keeping nice, fre^ih goods for his neighbors to buy.
\'ol. 6-39
638
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
He could not earn the" money for his family if the other
families in the neighborhood did not deal with him and
pay him for the goods they get from him.
First point: Money should be earned.
Second point: None of the necessities of the home
could be supplied without money. Money as a medium of
exchange emphasized. In this way we can rightly help the
children to judge of and value its purposes. Money, as
such, would be valueless unless we could obtain by it that
which we need or like, and help others to obtain that which
they need or like.
Third point: Through the making of change in buying
and selling groceries in the kindergarten, the children can
learn to count, by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and
dividing.
We take the grocery as a representative industry and
means of livelihood, because it is closest to the child's ex-
perience. Every child loves a grocery, and especially a
small grocery in a quiet neighborhood. Its heterogeneous
quality is its charm. Again, the kind of food we eat is
traced to what we buy at the grocery. In occupation work
we cut and paste articles bought at the grocery, — either
food or household utensils. On the circle we play grocery.
One child "keeps store," while others come with paper
money (facsimile of coin) to buy groceries. — Laura P.
Charles, Lexington, Ky.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 639
A NEW SCHOOL OF WORK. — TEARING.
All children have a tendency to tear. "What children
universally love, is developing." Shall we not, then, legiti-
matize tearing, and add it to our schools of occupation?
Fingers were made before forks and scissors. When the
desire came to early man to divide homogeneous masses,
he accomplished his purpose by tooth and nail. His next
step was cutting, by means of a sharp-edged flint and stone
hammer, from which came the knife, and finally two knives
crossed and fastened, giving us shears, or scissors. Tear-
ing is of greater educational value than cutting, as it puts
the immature little man into closer relations to his material,
•educating the finger tips, which physical culturists tell us
are the mind of the hand. Tools help him to better results,
and machinery saves his time and strength. Hand work is
individual, self-work, and directly educative. It gives the
child a sympathetic knowledge of what amount of bodih"
toil is necessary to a given result. Tools and machinery
should come after the tactual experience. Let the paper
tearing precede paper cutting. Let it begin in the nursery,
under the guidance of mother or nurse or older child. Let
baby have certain material that is right for him to tear, if it
is nothing more than old newspaper; better, colored wrap-
ping paper that comes from dry-goods stores. The simplest
•step would be tearing in small bits to represent rain, snow,
sugar, or other divided substance. A wide scattering of
this material only continues the interest, as baby may be
snow sweeper and gather it into his cart to be taken awa}-,
or he may be the sun gathering the raindrops to make
clouds of.
First, small bits; second, long strips, to be tied in bun-
dles for fire kindlers; third, families of circles, to be used
as plates or money; fourth, families of squares which may
be folded into books, shawls, etc; fifth, vegetables and
fruit — apple, potato, turnip, banana, leaves; sixth, house,
barn, chair, table; seventh, animals — mouse, cat.
Guided tearing maj' follow, and now results will be more
of an object.
640 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
First, fold a square of paper in half on diameter; tear on
the crease. Second, fold each of these halves either long
way or cross way, and tear. Third, tear on creases of any
folding design, and paste pieces on a background in former
relative position to the whole, -/^^w Mac Arthur, Mi?meapolis.
WHAT THE FIFTH GIFT TELLS US.
The Fifth Gift lies before me, a marvel of concentrated
and diffusive form: Twenty-seven small cubes in one large
one; variety in unity. How can our minds seize it all?
Out of its systematic mass we get forms of everyday life
so simple and direct that our little ones delight in them.
There is grandma's chair, ever a central joy to the child,
who is filled with happiness if grandma is in it; then there
is the chair for mother, father, sister, and brother, while
sofas, beds, houses, gateways, castles, churches follow in
fascinating succession, till the spire of a cathedral or the
doorway of a home tells us our work is done with the
babies of our class.
On to the older mind, which glows over the "forms of
beauty," — like to kaleidoscopes, — now outstretching, now
indrawing, each with the purpose of consistency and har-
mony.
Eighteen varieties of form does Baroness Marenholtz
give upon this gift, with no entanglements, no confusion, —
a beautiful variety, then a concentration into its original
whole. Here comes a touch of geometry to her who will
see it; more than a touch — a development. We are sur-
prised into the meeting of our old friend the "Pythagorean
Theorem," which is revealed to us in greater beauty than
we ever saw it before. Yes, the formula is the same: "The
square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is
equal to the sum of the squares described on the other two
sides" (book iv, p. xi); but it is our own now more than
ever. As we advance we get forms of nature's crystals, —
the pentagon, trapezoid, parallelopiped, triangular prisms, —
and beauty varied by the turning of a few of those magic
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 64 1
cubes, some of which are divided and subdivided to give us
more power in ingenuity and creation, until we feel our own
capacity enlarging like the unfolding of a flower, and we
find ourselves creeping slowly toward the Infinite. So, too,
are we full of child life; as we give of ourselves* to the little
ones, even so does the Father give to us, and more abun-
dantly. "Freely as ye receive, freely give." — Clara B.
Rogers, Boston.
TWENTY BOOKS FOR THE KINDERGARTNER S LIBRARY.
The following list of books is recommended by Miss
Susan E. Blow as essential to the study of pedagogy:
1. "Philosophy of Education," by Johann K. F. Rosen-
kranz, of the University of Konigsberg, translated
from the German.
2. "Pestalozzi; His Life and Works," by Roger de Guimps,
translated from the French.
3. "Education of Man," by Friedrich Froebcl, translated
from the German by W. N. Hailmann.
4. "Pedagogics of the Kindergarten" (in press), by Fried-
rich Froebel.
5.» "Autobiography of Froebel," by E. Michaelis and H.
Keatley Moore.
6. " Froebel's Letters," by E. Michaelis and H. Keatley
Moore.
7. "The Senses and the Will," by W. Preyer, of Jena, trans-
lated from the German.
8. "The Development of the Intellect," by W. Preyer.
9. "Mental Development in the Child," W. Preyer,
10. Rousseau's "Emile," by W. H. Payne.
11. "Introduction to the Study of Philosophy," by Dr. Wm.
T. Harris.
12. "Educational Psychology," Dr. W'm. T. Harris.
13. " Levana," by Richter.
14. "Method in Education," by Rosmini.
15. "Apperception, or A Pot of Green Feathers," by T. G.
Rooper.
642 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
16. "Anthropology," by E. B. Tyler.
17. "Philosophy of History," by Hegel.
18. "Wilhelm Meister" — The Pedagogic Province in Meis-
ter's Travels, as translated from the German of
Goethe by Thomas Carlyle.
To this list must be added:
19. " Mother-Play and Nursery Songs," by Friedrich Froe-
bel; also the new commentary on the same.
20. "Symbolic Education," by Susan E. Blow.
It is the purpose of the management of this magazine, to
bring in the next year's volume a scheduled plan of sys-
tematic reading and study of the above list.
THE THREE WEAVERS.
Close beside a window high,
With a crutch not far away.
Sits a tiny little child.
Busy weaving strips so gay.
Near him, on a branch of green
Just outside the casement high.
With their weaving busy, too,
Happy birds are flitting by.
Toiling ever at her loom
Down within the noisy mill.
Works a woman day by day,
Brave of heart and strong of will.
Sweet to her the memory dear
Of the birdlings in the tree;
Fonder still the thought of one
Little child loved tenderly.
Glad the stars shine out at night
On the weavers three, at rest,
Shedding far their golden light
Over mother, child, and nest.
— Caroline L. Dinzey,
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NURSERY. — LET THE CHILD ALONE.
IV.
Our young philosopher has learned to walk, is learning
to talk, is learning the names and uses of all the things he
sees. He is a happy child, full of play in the latter part
of the day, after his nap, but quiet and meditative in the
morning. His thoughtful moods should never be broken
in upon; he is growing in the consciousness of himself and
of his surroundings. The interior, the spiritual germ, is
growing too, and the angels are hovering around him to
encourage and bless, to sanctify and consecrate. P.ach
morn is a new wonder to him. The dawn, the light, the
sun are daily marvels, and fill him with quiet joy. The
universe is bending toward the child, whispering to his
soul, holding it in sweet converse. It is a holy time which
should never be disturbed. The great artists select this
hour in the child's daily life, portraying this communion of
the universal spirit with the individual soul by a holy ex-
pression of face, a golden halo about the head, with guard-
ian and ministering angels hovering near. If he is let
alone during these sacred moments he will be peaceful and
happy all the day, will instinctively — intuitively — select
the best means of exercising his body and his mind; will
sit on the floor for hours quietly playing with the simplest
things — the simpler the better; will look from the window
at the sunshine on the grass, at the moving leaves of the
trees above, their trembling shadows below. The sky, the
repose of light in its depths, is an unfailing source of quiet
joy; "mother earth" yields her modest treasures to his
digging with spoon or stick; the sand heap and small mud
puddle are his delight.
He is a child of nature, of the elements, and over him
the Infinite Mother broods; and if she is not molested in
644 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
her care, is not cruelly deprived of her nursling by finite
interference, his body, mind, and soul will grow and unfold
in perfect proportions.
In the midst of a morning's simple pleasures the child
will drop to sleep. Lift him gently to his bed and leave
him with the angels. When he awakens do not dispel his
dream, for he
By that vision splendid
Is on his way attended
through the day, the years, perhaps, of childhood; aye,
maybe through the whole of earth life! How sacred, then,
are the child's quiet, meditative hours, and the sleep that
gives the soul release; and when that soul returns, how
gentle should be the mother's greeting!
Reader, these are not the "vain imaginings." If you
doubt the spiritual life and divine consciousness of the
child, let alone and quietly observe and study it; lay aside
preconceived opinions and permit him to lead you back to
the Infinite Mother, and question her as to the nature of
the being that has been partly intrusted to your care. She
will speak to your spirit, and it, long since neglected, long
since silenced, will confirm her every word. To this voice
some of us have listened; her advice we have followed, and
have proved her knowledge of all true childhood.
Think of the unspoiled child, — the child that has not
been fondled for the pleasure of grown-up people; the
child that has not been fed on confectionery, pastry, cake,
nor meat; the child that has not heard "baby talk" nor
gossip; the child that has not been frightened nor stimu-
lated into "nervousness" by harmful play or the constant
fears of parents; the true baby-child of two or three years,
plump, dimpled, sweeter than a rose, fairer than a lily!
Think what must be the soul communings and the soul
musings of such a one!
Happy indeed the parents who can lay aside all worldli-
iiess, all false opinions, notions, and whims, and silently
enter the child's world, breathe its purer air, see the visions,
hear the voices of the attending angels! twice happy the
mothers' department. 645
parents who understand that each child is an individual,
conscious, spiritual entity, with a world of its own into
which they are not to enter until invited! thrice happy
they who wisely fit themselves for parenthood, minds and
bodies, and are from the beginning soul comrades with
their children, respecting and respected, — not feared, —
loving and loved.
Parents, make haste to rid yourselves of all that is false,
of all that is barren of true spiritual life, and be guided by
the light that lighteth everyone that cometh into the world;
follow your children into the kingdom.
"And a little child shall lead them." — Aima Norris Ken-
dall.
DO WE NEED THE PARENTS HELP."'
Yes, I think we do. We need all the help we can get.
Parents can tell us many things that will aid us in our
work. We need their sympathy and their hearty coopera-
tion; therefore the teacher and parents should understand
one another.
We want the parents to feel that our work is most ear-
nestly intended to make their children stronger physically,
mentally, and morally; and we would have them under-
stand that we do not think ourselves infallible or all-suffi-
cient in this grand and noble work of training muscles,
directing mind, and shaping character; that, next to the
help of the Great Teacher of all men, we value their sym-
pathy and support. If such a relationship could be brought
about between parents and teacher, the teaching work would
be more satisfactory to the parents as well as to the teacher
himself.
I think such a condition of affairs next to impossible;
first, because but few who have never taught can fully
understand the plans, the thoughts, and the anxieties of the
true teacher. Nine-tenths, or ninety-nine out of one hun-
dred, of the parents think (if they stop to think) that the
teacher's interest stops at four o'clock and begins at nine
646 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
(if they are charitable enough to think we have any interest
whatever in their children).
They find fault with our plans, not because they want to
find fault, but because they lack the knowledge a hearty
cooperation in our work would give them of our plans.
The progressive teacher, no matter how true and conscien-
tious he may be, will be misunderstood; in fact, I have
sometimes thought the more conscientious the teacher, the
oftener he is misunderstood and called a crank. Some
good man said that cranks are all right. "They are men
that were born twenty-five or fifty years before their time."
Consequently people will not be able to appreciate them or
their work until their work is done.
Teachers, I believe that no true work will ever be lost.
We want to do every pupil some permanent good. Parents
and pupils may not understand us now, and we may be
tempted to sacrifice principle when a little policy would
make the path smoother; and we may say to ourselves,
"After all, it is better to live peaceably with all men;" but
if we yield, and practice these things until conscience be-
comes seared, it will not pay.
If our work comes from honest, thoughtful hearts we
may hope to do something for our pupils, for the time will
come "when the work of our weaving shall be turned; then
shall they praise what now they spurn."
The teacher has little or no time for making special
calls for the purpose of affording the parents an oppor-
tunity to become acquainted with him, but must depend
upon his pupils' estimate to represent him to the parents,
while he becomes acquainted with the parents through his
knowledge of their children. Except in extreme cases and
on special business, when the teacher calls on some of his
patrons he should call on all, especially if invited to do so.
I wish the parents would visit us. I wish they would come
when they are in good humor. I wish they would come
when they think we have mistreated their children. I wish
they would come when they are not interested, and when
hey are interested, and when they think the physical exer-
mothers' department. 647
cise is taking away the little life that their children have,
or is breaking over old bones, weakening their hearts, or
straining their poor, weak spines.
Parents will not do their duty in this respect; the teacher
cannot do all of it; consequently it remains undone, while
the parents brood over an atom of misunderstanding until
they imagine the teacher is their children's enemy instead
of one of their best friends. Now, would it be best to drop
this little trouble? The children cannot understand that it
will help them any, and the parents are sure it is killing
them. They may never be able to understand that it
helped them, yet if we know that the work will benefit
them, it is our duty to do it.
What! do it, and be called a crank, and partial, and
brutal? Yes. Duty says "Do." Policy says, " Better drop
it." If we taught for praise and money alone, I think the
teacher, of all men, would be most miserable; but since we
count on a final reward, a "Well done, good and faithful
servant!" the teacher, of all men, has the greatest oppor-
tunities.
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
■ — Laura Pixley, ''Western Scliool Journal y
PICTURES IN THE FIRE.
Look in the embers for fairy town;
All the quaint brownies wear a flame gown.
I saw wee people march up and down
Streets made of gold in the fairy town.
Dancing and leaping, the flames burn low;
Gladly I sit in the firelight's glow.
I saw a home in this strange new land;
Turret and tower arose high and grand.
Waterfalls fell over golden sand.
Sparkling with light from the fairyland.
Dancing and leaping, the flames burn low;
Gladly I sit in the firelight's glow.
— Sopha S. Bixby.
648 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
A PLEA FOR ORIGINALITY.
There is one thing especially, about the kindergarten,
for which I am truly thankful; and that is, that it brings
out, rather than warps the natural originality of the chil-
dren. They are taught to think for themselves, occasion-
ally to do a little wonderful guessing and a great deal of
choosing. Fanciful and imaginative little minds grow in
the kindergarten like flowers in sweet, spring sunshine.
The children are often allowed to invent names for their
games, their different kinds of work, or certain stories.
Now how much better this is than the old-fashioned way of
teaching little children.
Originality counts for so much when we are grown up,
that it seems a great pity to be constantly checking it in
children. And yet parents do check it by not letting chil-
dren think out things for themselves to a greater extent.
We grown-ups are apt to be so practical, so prosaic, and,
alas! often so careworn, that we go on doing things in the
same way and expressing our thoughts in the same phrases
that we did yesterday and the day before. But the chil-
dren? oh, no; every day they are building new fancies
about the stars, or Mr. Moon, or the flowers in the meadow,
and, if you will let them, coining new words to fit their new
thoughts.
Children have a faculty of seeing for themselves, of
reaching conclusions concerning puzzling facts, which I am
afraid we often lose as we grow older and learn to lean on
books and the experiences of older people. I believe that
we should always answer truthfully, and to the best of our
ability, the many questions our little ones ask. But is it
not just as well not to answer too readily, but to see what
reply they would find for themselves first? Are not the
roots of the trees stronger for having to push through the
ground inch by inch?
The other day my little boy was watching some one
popping corn. He ran to me asking, "Mamma, what
makes the corn pop?" "Well, dear," I replied, "you watch
mothers' department. 649
it a little while longer and see if yoii can find out what
makes it burst into such pretty white blossoms."
Very soon he came to me and said: "Mamma, I know
what makes the corn pop. It has been up on that cold
dark shelf in the pantry so long, that when it gets over the
fire and has a chance to dance and jump over the pretty,
warm coals, it is so glad it just jumps till it bursts out of its
old yellow coat. I guess popcorn likes to blossom; don't
you think it does, Mamma?"
I know I should not have told him the reason in such an
original way, and of course it was easy enough to explain it
scientifically afterwards. And best of all, he had thought
out a pretty little story about the corn for himself.
To me it has seemed that the children who make up
words of their own are the ones who grasp the words of a
real language the more readily, and that they are more
anxious than the children who accept only the words
taught them, to use the right word in the right place.
It has been the rule in our household never by look or
speech to take notice of these coined words, but to let our
small boy manufacture as many and as queer ones as he
choose. For new or unusual words he seems to have a great
liking. Sometimes when he is busy playing with his cars
on the floor I hear him repeating words or names which he
has made up, or such as seem to please his ear. A pair
of tongs he has always called the coal-pail fork, knowing
no other name for them than the one which he found
described them. By this I do not mean that I would en-
courage what is called "baby talk"; but I do think it is
right to allow children to be as natural and original as they
please in their play, their speaking, and thinking. And if
with this freedom they are allowed to be childlike, — and
not like so many little grandfathers and grandmothers
o'erstocked with worldly wisdom, — to be natural, and are
taught to see with the eyes God has given them, I am sure
that we as fathers and mothers will rejoice later on. — Nellie
Nelsoti Amsde?i.
650 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
AN ACTIVE CHILD.
Can you give me any information of kindergarten work? I have a
little girl fifteen months old who is very restless, and I think if I had
anything to interest her or to occupy her, it would quiet her nervous-
ness. She is exceedingly bright. — Mrs. G. H. R., Nashville, Tenn.
You will find the new periodical, Child-Gardefi, of the
greatest help to you in j^our work with the little daughter.
This magazine suggests the stories, songs, plays, and other
work followed out in the current kindergarten. The bound
volume for the past year is just in the market, price $2.
This was brought out for the special convenience and bene-
fit of mothers who wish to use this work in the home. Also,
the illustrated book of "Finger Plays" (price $1.25) would
be of the greatest value to you. If your child is nervous,
give her plenty of action and exercise. This is one reason
for the extensive use of gesture songs in the kindergarten.
Nervousness is the result of unapplied energy, and we seek
through this means to reinstate the normal physical equilib-
rium. The two books I have mentioned require no special
technical knowledge of the kindergarten, but they apply
the principles. — S. S. E.
PROPER CHAIRS FOR SCHOOLROOM.
"What can be done to prevent the children from leaning
upon the tables?" is a query in the January number of the
Kindergarten Magazine.
Give the little ones chairs with straight backs and high
enough to rest the head against.
It is a painful remembrance to me to think of the last
term at school. The room was furnished with "modern
school furniture." The backs of the chairs inclined at such
an angle as to make them practically worthless, and to sit
in one was no easier than sitting on a stool; the conse-
quence was an almost irresistible impulse to lean upon the
desk for support.
The result of leaning back in reclining chairs without
anything upon which to rest the head, is a strain across the
abdomen, which in turn seriously affects the muscles of the
eye. — L. S. F.
mothers' department. 651
ball song for the babies.
I'll toss my ball so high!
To catch it then I'll try;
I'll not let fall
^ My pretty ball,
But toss it up so high.
Now, ball, swing to and fro;
Move gently, soft and slow;
But far away
You cannot stay.
While swinging to and fro.
Come bounce now on the floor;
Bounce once, and two times more;
You must not drop.
But only hop,
When bouncing on the floor;
The turning wheel next show
As flying fast you go;
Around, around.
Just touch the ground.
When turning wheel }'ou show.
And now 'tis time to rest;
You've done your very best;
So sleep, dear ball,
Till next I call,
For now 'tis time to rest.
— Martlia L. Saiiford.
The spirited appeal to women, made by Henrietta Gold-
schmidt of Germany, which we reprint under the title of
" Ethical Influence of Women in Education," in this number,
will be found full of meat for mothers. Read it aloud at
\'our next mothers' meeting.
652 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
THE child's questions.
May I say a word to the mother who asks what to do
with the child's questions?
Children often form a habit of asking idle questions
merely to hold the parent's attention, without any real
interest in the matter. It is the same restless attitude of
mind that leads older people to dawdle over the gossip of
newspapers, to engage in frivolous conversation, to busy
themselves about their neighbors' business. In answering
questions, the mother should always have in view awaken-
ing the child's own powers of observation and thought, and
teaching him to seek the answers to his own questions. To
do this ask him questions, and cultivate the habit of always
looking for the reason of what he sees, instead of carelessly
aski?ig for it.
You are peeling an apple for your child. He may wait
in simple impatience to get his fruit, or you may give him a
delightful lesson to awaken thought, in this way:
"This is the apple's coat I am taking off; see how
smooth and shiny it is, without the tiniest bit of a crack for
the water to get in. Why does the apple need this smooth,
shiny, rubber coat?"
"I don't know; why does it?"
"Where did the apple live when it was a little baby
apple?"
" Oh, on a tree."
"Yes, out in the orchard, where the rain used to come
pouring down on it; but it couldn't get in, could it? The
apple said, 'Run away, little raindrops; you've washed the
dust off my coat, and now you must go down to the ground.
There the roots will open their mouths and drink you up,
and you'll come creeping up here again inside the tree, and
make us all grow and get big and red and juicy.' Why did
the apple want to get big and red and juicy?"
" For me to eat?"
"Maybe so; but inside the apple is a little house with
pretty little rooms, and little brown people living in them
Now you eat the apple carefully, and when you find the lit-
mothers' department. 653
tie brown people see if }'ou can tell me what they are for,
and why the apple took such good care of them." — Emily
Hwitijigton Miller.
KINDERGARTEN LITERATURE.
There are in this world such things as positive duties,
moral responsibilities, which cannot be evaded without
making serious trouble for the one who endeavors to dodge
them. No argument is necessary concerning the truth of
the statement that the father and mother of a child are
morally as well as socially responsible for that child's train-
ing. There is of course a large class of parents who cannot
themselves be held responsible for anything, social or
moral. They are the outcasts of humanity, who must be
cared for, as the public must also care for their offspring.
But the ordinary father and mother, the men and women at
the heads of families, respectable, "well-to-do," and with
an average education, have no more imperative dut)' laid
upon them than the seeing to it that the children they
bring into the world shall have a fair chance for mental and
spiritual as well as physical life.
It is only of late years that this fact has been recognized
and the responsibility placed where it really belongs, — in
the home as well as in the schoolroom, and before the
child is even of school-going age?. But it is most fully rec-
ognized in this present age; and with the recognition there
have been provided abundant ways and means whereby this
duty ma\^ be faithfully discharged. Nothing is more help-
ful in this direction than the educational literature now
published, particularly the periodicals devoted to the early
education of the child, the period when the parent must of
necessity be the onh^ teacher, and the time in the child's
life which is most susceptible to the influences which will
make or mar all his future years. — Elea?ior Kirk's Idea.
The occupation of sewing outline cards and geometric
designs, as pursued in every kindergarten, is discussed by
Mrs. Van Kirk in a recent number of the Household Ne'ws,
Vol 6-40
654 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
She says by way of summary: " Physically, 'by this occupa-
tion the muscles of the hand are strengthened, those of the
back also, by correct position; the mind looks out and
learns to intelligently guide the eager hands, and the love
of the beautiful is being beckoned out through the love of
color and form that is pictured; as they talk quietly of
their work or speak of their own experiences, language is
growing; and best of all, this little group of children is
getting into the habit of being busy for a purpose, of being
contentedly industrious; and that treasure most earnestly
to be desired is coming within reach, — the liabit of happi-
?iess, the power to look on the bright side of things. In
this little world are all the hopes, plans, and despairs of the
larger world, and they are as real and vital in the golden
age as when they touch us on the sunset side of life; only
now shall be determined into what channel they shall be
turned. A broken thread or a ruined card may be a tragic
thing to a child, and the spirit by which they are met will
come in greater force in after years; the ever-fateful ?iow,
at this age as at no other, decides the future."
FIELD NOTES.
The Social Settlement movement, which has been accumulating
force for many months, not only in this country but on the continent, is
becoming a reconstructive element in educational as well as philan-
thropic work. Each of the social settlements conspicuous at present
in Chicago has its well-regulated kindergarten department. This is
by no means a fact of minor consideration. Miss Jane Addams, of Hull
House, Chicago, will present our readers with an article in the June
number of the Kindergarten Magazine on the Kindergarten as a
Factor in Social Reconstruction. The social settlement just being
organized by the University of Chicago, in the stock yards district of
this city, opened its first kindergarten early in January. A kindergar-
ten institute for the training of women in all departments of child cul-
ture, will be conducted by a group of the residents, in connection with
the settlement, and the evidences are numerous that this work will find
hearty cooperation, as it will furnish many opportunities for the inter-
mingling of humanity. A further account of this work will appear next
month, and circulars can be secured on application to any of the follow-
ing directors: Mrs. Mary B. Page, 2312 Indiana avenue, Chicago; Miss
Frances E. Newton, 156 Twenty-fifth street, Chicago; Miss Amalie Hofer,
Woman's Temple, Chicago.
Mary H. Peabody at St. Louis. — Through the energy and enthusi-
asm of its president, Miss Mary McCuUoch, the Froebel Society of St.
Louis has been favored at each of its monthly meetings this year with
an address from a prominent kindergartner. Xo greater treat has yet
been offered than the papers prepared and read by Mrs. Mary H. Pea-
body, of New York, at the January meeting. The subject of the first
was "The Second Gift, and its Analogy in Nature and in Life." The
pleasure this paper gave drew forth the unanimous desire for another,
to which Mrs. Peabody kiiT,dly consented, and gave "The Center of the
Sphere; a Study of Relationships in the Kindergarten." This was an
explanation of the phrase often used by educators, " Keep the child at
the center of the sphere," — what it means. The following is a con-
densed statement: Symbolic in form (the phrase), the scientific aspect
was first reviewed. Attention was directed to the two points, center
and circumference. "Life, at the center; form, without. This outer-
most meets the first outlook of humanity. It is the heavens, the earth,
plants, animals, men. Here is variety, delusion. Revelation is neces-
sary. At the center is Power, simplicity. There is one Creator; from
him all life proceeds. Nature is the outer manifestation of that life;
656 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
back to its Source it returns in ascending degrees, producing the unity
of life. For illustration of this fact in nature, the sun and earth were
given as an example of central power and return to source. Froebel
saw nature taught man God's method of work, showed the laws of
things; saw that educated life in man came from knowing those laws
and acting in harmony with them. Force displays itself in forms. The
sphere is the form of compact unity, the Alpha and Omega of nature.
Because of its universal character Froebel chose this type to begin the
child's education." Its outer relationships seen, there remain its inner
to be unfolded. " Power itself is above; each form below receives its
own peculiar gift or degree of life, and works from the center outward.
This central energy, moving along the lines of three equal axes, creates
a threefold division of the whole, and brings into being three dimen-
sions, corresponding to length, breadth, and thickness in geometry.
The vertical plane connects the form with the Infinite, the horizontal
defines the circle of nature, the third represents the return of life from
nature to God, — the plane of humanity, which, mathematically speaking
as from front to back, cuts through the other two at their own meeting
place, the center of the sphere. In the kindergarten, the child is the
vertical line embodied. Placed here in nature, the line of his interior
life is crossed by the lines of the earthly and human planes. The labor
and trial of human existence lie in the effort to make the line of the
earth plane run so true that it shall touch the vertical line, not merely
somewhere, but absolutely at the center. The child in the kindergar-
ten is constantly dealing with the center as a point of construction. It
is the 'abiding point of reference.' When all points are balanced in
their relation to it, harmony reigns. To keep the child at the center of
the sphere is impossible. To know the center, and maintain himself
there approximately, is to be his own lesson of life. He must look
upward and outward to find it. The lesson given at the center of the
sphere is progress, balance of parts, the control of the outside from
within. 'We learn by doing.' By right action the outer form and
inner life of man should be so harmonized that the lines of his being in
their return to God will meet threefold at the center of the sphere." —
E.L.
The annual statement uf the Commissioner of Education, Wm. T.
Harris, to the Secretary of the Interior is published for 1893, and con-
tains valuable statistics as well as a philosophic survey of the tendency
of educational work. Dr. Harris writes concerning the Columbian
Exposition, and its influence upon school matters: "It was an occa-
sion of unusual importance especially owing to the changes now in
progress in educational systems throughout the world. I may briefly
advert to one of these phases in view of its importance to the produc-
tive industry of the nation. World's fairs have exerted great influence
upon the progress of the mechanic arts ever since the first one, held at
FIELD NOTES. 657
London in 185 1. It is well known that the South Kensington Museum
is the result of the studies of intelligent Englishmen upon the causes of
superiority in the finish given to French goods. It was seen that artistic
finish is necessary to command the highest market prices." He traces
the transition from this demand for excellent products to the necessity
for most excellent producers. He says: "But the world's fairs have
taught the new lesson that it is a matter of national concern to educate
the taste of its people by the establishment of schools of art and design,
and by elementary art education in the people's schools of all grades.
.... The fact that the goods produced by the French workmen for
competition in the markets of the world in the line of ornament and
high finish easily push aside those of other nations, has drawn the
attention of those who advocate the training of the hand exclusively for
its educational effect, and in the Columbian Exposition this change of
base is very manifest. This perhaps is one of the most interesting fea-
tures to the visitor at Chicago the present summer. In this respect the
present World's Fair will have a far greater influence upon the educa-
tional systems of the world than any of its predecessors." The historic
sketch of this transition from head to hand ti'aining embodied in the
•report is valuable to all educators. Secure a copy of the rejiort if pos-
sible.
The annual report of the Manchester (Eng.) Art Museum comes
with its usual quota of vitally interesting statements. Aside from an
explicit report of the work of the year just closed, is the following rec-
ommendation of a future departure: "The committee desire to point out
that the art museum now contains many groups of pictures well fitted
to give children, in a very pleasant way, clearer ideas than can be given
by words alone, of the subjects of the lessons on history, geography,
physical geography, botany, etc., received by them in their schools; and
the committee are convinced that if visits were periodically jiaid to the
museum by chiUlren, under the charge of teachers, such visits would
have a most beneficial influence on the children, not only by adding to
their knowledge, but also by giving them pleasant associations with
school, and by leading them to form the habit of spending time intelli-
gently in museums and picture galleries. They intend, therefore, to
ask the education department to allow time spent by children under the
guidance of teachers in museums and art galleries, which have been
examined and approved of by the department, to count as time spent in
school. Before submitting the request to the department, they would
be glad to receive from the school boards of Manchester and Salford,
and from associations of teachers, expressions of approval of their pro-
posal. If the rooms of the museum were used systematically by classes
from schools in its neighborhood, the committee would be glad to ob-
tain any additional series of plates and pictures which could add clear-
ness and interest to the subjects studied in the schools; e. g., series of
658 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
illustrations of Bible scenes, scenes in Shakespeare's plays, series of
geographical, historical, botanical plates, provided that they found that
the plates would be of use to the scholars of several schools. The com-
mittee believe that the desirableness of training the feelings, the tastes,
and the habits of children more fully than elementary schools are
now training them, is now so generally recognized, that if the collections
in one museum were thus made to influence the children in a single
group of schools, museums similar to the art museum would before long
be provided in other crowded parts of Manchester and other large
towns, to the great advantage both of children and persons of all ages.
The attendance of visitors during the year has been over 39,000, being
an increase of nearly 3,000 on the number in the preceding year." Mr.
T. C. Horsfall, secretary of the school, writes under private cover that
the Manchester museum will soon be connected by means of loan col-
lections, with two hundred school departments; also that a new room
has just been added and preparations are being made of the descriptive
matter for the pictures to be hung in it. Mr. Walter Crane is now the
director of the Manchester School of Art.
Each year the curriculum of the Chicago Kindergarten College pro-
vides for the study of one of the four great poets,— Homer, Dante,
Goethe, Shakespeare, — whom Lowell calls " indispensable authors." In
the spring, usually the week following Easter, ten lectures known as
the Literary School are delivered by prominent people from different
parts of the country. This year the subject is Goethe's " Faust," and
such names as William T. Harris, Hamilton Mabie, Richard Moulton,
Caroline K. Sherman, Dr. Thomas, and Professor Swing appear on the
program. Denton J. Snider -is director. Great literature is a mirror for
humanity. The object of Goethe, in his great poem of " Faust," is to de-
fine the negative element in the world, or the relation of good and evil.
Through his denial of truth Faust develops Mephisto, by whom he is
led through the negative or perverted world. This is the substance of
the first book. The second describes Faust's regeneration and return
to harmony, the subjugation of Mephisto beginning in the germ of the
true love Faust bears for Margaret. As an example of practical value
of such, take the scene in the second book, called " The Masquerade."
Here is shown the development of wealth and its influence upon human
relationships. Anciently the alchemist dreamed of transforming the
baser metals into gold. What he aimed to do by magic, man has since
done by industry. Thus is every step in human progress foreshadowed
in the mind of man, and only the poet is able to seize and embody this
in mythical form, called by Mr. Snider the " mythus of industry." The
wood chopper, the pioneer of industry, the first element in man's sub.
jugation of nature, appears immediately upon the formation of the
family. In quick succession are Fear, Hope, Prudence, and a troop of
other characters; but interest quite centers upon that of Plutus (Wealth),
FIELD NOTES. 659
who is followed by the Boy Charioteer (Poesy). The two might journey
blissfully together if it were not for that other figure, Avarita, close by
Plutus, who banishes Poesy (poetry of life is meant), and takes posses-
sion of Wealth. Avarita (Avarice) we discover is Mephisto in disguise,
who makes Wealth an end in itself, and turns everything into money,
even "the honor of men" and the "virtue of women." Imagine a poet
as politician. But here it is: to circumvent Avarice, a deputation of
labor demand the issuance of paper money, not as a certificate of value
gained, but a pledge of labor not yet put forth. Labor gets its desire,
and corruption at last destroys the old state, making way for a new
growth. This is the modern phenomenon of paper money, — wealth
without labor. Does anyone ask why the poet calls this scene " a
Masquerade" ? To him it is said, It is the poet's mirror in which society
may see itself. A familiar figure reveals her true character as a candi-
date for matrimony, by masking as a " debutante." The value of this
study is apparent to all who are fortunate enough to have heard the
lectures already given. Besides a broader culture it yields a deeper
insight into human development, individual as well as of the race.
" Man is explicable by nothing less than all his history," says Emerson,
and the poet is the truest historian.
The annual meeting of the Department of Superintendence was
held as announced, at Richmond, \'a., February 20-22. This session
gave evidence of a growing interest m these practical problems before
the department, especially on the part of the younger members, and
also gave rise to some startling comparisons being made between school
values east and west of the Alleghanies, in favor of the latter. Among
other spirited hours during the meetings was that in which Mr. James
L. Hughes of Toronto read his paper on "The Kindergarten in Relation
to the Schools." The following impressions of this paper and the sub-
sequent discussion were recorded by the special correspondent of the
Public School Journal, which we reprint for the pleasure and profit of
our readers: "In the kindergarten, 'each child is to live his soul straight
out,' to develop physically, to exercise his motor impulses, to develop
free, spontaneous action, to be self-directive. The play oi the kinder-
garten combines best the receptive, reflective, and executive powers.
Play awakens a passion for the strongest effort. Play is the natural
work of the child. This subject of play and luor^ excited no little
debate. Superintendent Shaeffer, of Pennsylvania, said that when he
was a boy on the farm he had no difficulty to distinguish between work
and play, and he thought the school should not confuse the two ideas,
but it should draw a clear line. In reply. President MacAlister said:
Every healthy child must play. The difficulty now is, there is no joy in
our work. The beautiful works of art in our museums were the result
of work. The reason they are beautiful is because the artist had Joy \n
his work. There comes a time when work is converted into play.
660 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
There is clanger in drawing a distinction between work and play. All
work is to be joyful, and all work to result from play. The kindergar-
ten is to destroy the distinction. Play predominates in the kindergar-
ten work toward freedom in the school. It was suggested from several
sides that the movement toward establishing kindergartens should be
gradual, and only so fast as trained kindergartners can be secured."
Persons interested in the day nursery work in cities should provide
themselves with the Annual Yearbook of the Day Nursery and Kinder-
garten Society of Cleveland, Mrs. W. E. Gushing, secretary. The
working constitution and by-laws of this organization are well worth
study, as are also the reports of the various departments of work. The
co-relation of the day nursery to the kindergarten is proven both prac-
tical and potent. The following paragraph is taken from the report:
"Some idea of the development of our work may be gained by a retro-
spect of the work of the past six years. The first free kindergarten was
opened at Perkins Nursery in 1886; its average daily attendance — ten.
In two years we had four kindergartens, with an average daily attend-
ance of fifty. In i8go our last kindergarten was added, bringing the
average daily attendance to sixty-two. In 1891 it increased to 106, and
this year it is 117. It has cost only $9.43 to bring each child under
the helpful influences of the kindergarten for ten months of the year.
Our steady growth is indeed gratifying; we feel that we are reaching
more homes, and not only making life brighter for the unfortunate little
ones, but aiding and instructmg their parents also."
A FREE kindergarten has been in existence in Fargo (N. Dak.) for
the past two years. A board of lady managers have it in charge, and
have no trouble in getting funds to pay expenses. They have a build-
ing given them by the board of education, which makes a bright and
cheerful room for the kindergarten. They have forty little ones from
three to six years. The kindergarten is situated in that part of the city
known as "Shanty Town," and the population is mostly Scandinavian.
Many of the children are entirely clothed by the kindergartner and her
assistant. The people of Fargo are very generous with the little ones,
and many donations of clothing, etc., are sent in. A kind gentleman
gave the children a New Year's dinner at one of the best restaurants.
It was a great treat for the children to have a good, substantial meal.
The furniture in the Fargo room of the Dakota State Building at the
World's Fair has been recently sold, and the proceeds, netting about
three hundred dollars, given to the kindergarten. The board of man-
agers earnestly hope to have the kindergarten in the public schools
before long.
Youngstown, O. — I must tell you about our Christmas treat. I had
decided to spend as little as possible this year, so the gifts for parents
were picture frames, pin trays, etc., of cardboard embroidered with
FIELD NOTES. 66l
bright worsteds. It was all beautifully done, and a kind lady sent us a
tree to trim with the gifts. The day before we celebrated, a grocery
man who had given us a magnificent treat last year came in and said
that owing to the "hard times "this year, the children would need a
"treat" more than they did last year; and this is what he sent us: one
hundred pounds of candy, two stems of bananas, a box of oranges, a
bushel of apples, a bushel of peanuts, and a bushel of small sweet crack-
ers. Think of it! just one of the local grocery men down in our part of
the city; he cannot be wealthy either. He sent us the same amount last
year. It means a great deal more than if it had come from one of the
uptown groceries which supplies our wealthy patrons and might do such
a thing to increase their patronage. There is nothing that reaches the
people as does the free kindergarten. — M. S. M.
One of the results of the International Congress on Education, held
in Chicago last July, is the organization of the Manual Training Teach-
ers' Association of America. Its purposes are to secure cooperation in
study and experiment; to gather and to disseminate information regard-
ing the principles, progress, and development of manual training, and
to promote the professional interests of its members. At a meeting of
classroom teachers the plan and scope of the association was discussed,
and a committee on constitution was appointed. The constitution pre-
pared was adopted later by those present at the Chicago meeting. The
officers of the association — Geo. B. Kilbon, Springfield, Mass., M. T. S.,
president; Geo. S. Waite, Toledo, O., M. T. S., vice president; and Geo.
Robbins, Frankfort, Ky., M. T. S., secretary and treasurer — constitute
the executive committee, which is now at work making arrangements
for a summer meeting. A copy of the constitution, with fuller particu-
lars, will be sent to anyone interested, upon application to either of the
officers.
Kindergarten and Sloyd. — Gustaf Larsson says: "Every kindergart-
ner should have a sloyd training, and every sloyd teacher should have
the kindergarten training. Of the sloyd system itself, it stands without
rival. Its methods through long and patient years have been systema-
tized with closer relations to the kindergarten idea of harmonious devel-
opment than have the methods of other systems, and it arranges its
models in pursuance of this idea. No set of models can be fairly esti-
mated, except experts know how to read into them the practical psy-
chology which they embody. All that is asked by the advocates of sloyd
training is that it shall have a chance to prove its claims. Let judgment
upon it be withheld until it is fully understood. The irrational methods
of cramming the memory, as pursued in most of our schools, should give
way to reason and common sense. The reign of sloyd is about to begin.
It will turn our cramped-up schoolrooms into laboratories where the
symmetrical development of the child will be the finished product."
662 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Those of our readers who visited the Children's Building at the
World's Fair will be interested to know of the disposition of funds made
at the close of same. The following are the principal disbursements
made: Woman's Memorial Building, $13,115.16; Lake Geneva Fresh
Air Fund, $1,000.06; Margaret Etter Creche, $1,000; the McCowan
School for Oral Instruction of Young Deaf Children, $800; Home for
Destitute Crippled Children, $500; Children's Aid Society, $100; Chi-
cago Humane Society, $400; Chicago Free Kindergarten Association,
$500; Master Hugh Copp, to aid in prosecuting his art study, $300, —
making a total sum of $17,715.16. Chairs and furniture were divided
among the Social Settlements, Emergency Relief Rooms,, Woman's
Shelter, St. James Creche, etc. The entire library exhibit, including
books, authors' copies, pictures, etc., was transferred to the Woman's
Memorial Building.
Ft. Collins, Colo. — While reading the " Field Notes" of the Kinder-
garten Magazine, the thought came to me that kindergartners who
were endeavoring to find a connection between the kindergarten and
the present public school system, might be cheered by the fact that the
struggle for an unbnaken growth from the kindergarten through the
higher grades has been going on in this small town for almost fourteen
years. Year by year we add to our stock of experience, and each day
finds us testing a different method. With the present system of pri-
mary instruction there can be no absolute connection, but we can smooth
the most ragged edges of difference, and lead educators in general to
see the importance of conceding just a little of the old principle in edu-
cation, that the beauty and strength of the new may be more fully shown.
— Josephine P. Lee.
The seventh annual literary school under the management of the
Chicago Kindergarten College, is in session at the time of issue of this
April number. The ten lectures on Goethe and his works were an-
nounced in the advertisement of the literary department of the college,
in the March number, and a full report of the discussions and import of
the school will appear next month. It is a great privilege afforded the
members of the school, to listen to the earnest and often inspired dis-
cussions which follow the various lectures, by such a group of men and
women as are gathered annually by this school. The management of
the school deserve the highest appreciation from educators for the
interpretations of the masters of literature which they hereby provide.
Their keynote is. Not literature for literature's sake, but literature for
life's sake.
The Chicago Kindergarten Club forwarded resolutions of respect
and appreciation to the faculty of the Cook County Normal school, for
their efforts to demonstrate modern educational methods. In reply to
the same, among other sound words Colonel Francis Parker writes as
FIELD NOTES. 663
follows: "I have been for many years a student of the principles of
Froebel, and firmly believe that they should be carried out not only
with little children, but through' the entire course of education from
the kindergarten to the university. The work of the Cook County Nor-
mal school has been for the past eleven years in this direction."
The Chicago Kindergarten Club has had two eminently profitable
addresses during the past month, — that of Professor Graham Taylor, on
the "Sociological Aspect of Personality," and that of Calvin B. Cady,
on the " Piano and the Child." The club is preparing to keep Froebel's
birthday in conjunction with the Cook County Normal school at Normal
Park. This bringing together of many educational factors, is worthy
honor to this occasion. The Kindergarten Club has never had more
enthusiastic and therefore profitable meetings than during these spring
months.
The meeting of the California Froebel Society was held at 64 Silver
street, on Friday, February 2, Mrs. Dohrman in the chair. A lively
discussion followed the reading of the papers prepared by the cabinet,
on " Daily Religion in the Kindergarten" ; but it was unanimously agreed
that such religion as is taught little children should be of the simplest
character and of the most liberal kind. A motion was carried that the
next free kindergarten to be established in San Francisco should be
called the Emma Marwedel Kindergarten. — Secy.
The New York Society of Pedagogy. — One of the lines that this soci-
ety is working in is the keeping of the bibliography of education up
to date. That all teachers may have the benefit of its efforts, it pub-
lishes quarterly a Magazine and Book Reference, which contains the
names of all articles on education published in the magazines of the
United States, as well as a list of educational and pedagogical works as
they appear.
Dr. W. N. Hailmann has fulfilled several heartily anticipated lec-
ture engagements in the East during the past month. Boston and Phil-
adelphia had him in their midst. One of the teachers who heard him
on the subject of the "Heart, Head, and Hand," expressed his delight
by calling Dr. Hailmann the Gladstone of education.
Constant inquiries come to the Kindergarten Literature Company
for kindergarten circulars, association reports, forms for model constitu-
tions, and practical plans for organizing free kindergarten associations.
Will the workers forward such to us from time to time, that they may
in turn be disseminated through such new districts?
Over a hundred boys receive instruction for two hours each week in
the Santa Barbara Sloyd school, coming after school hours to enjoy this
work. This is one way of revealing to a community the import of such
664 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
work, and will ultimately lead to a public demand for the same to be
made a part of the regular public school work.
At an observation party given by the kindergartners in San Fran-
cisco some time ago, prizes were offered for the one most successful in
the sense games. One of the prizes was a year's subscription to the
Kindergarten Magazine, There is a growing enthusiasm among our
readers, which is gratifying to its publishers.
Kindergartners would find it highly interesting to make a parallel
study of three men whose early life and experiences have much in com-
mon,— Hans Andersen, Friedrich Froebei, and John Ruskin. In how
far these represent national traits would also be an interesting point to
investigate.
Kindergartners will be interested in the account of the Kinder-
garten for the Deaf, and its growth during the past year in the McCowen
School for the Deaf. Send to the institute, 6550 Yale Ave., Englewood,
111., for a copy.
A CLASS of eighty kindergartners, primary teachers, and mothers
has recently been organized in Rochester, N. Y., for the study of Froe-
bel's "Mother-Play Book," under the direction of Miss Anna Littell, of
Buffalo.
The following birthdays come in this month: April 3, Hans Christian
Andersen, Washington Irving; April 7, William Wordsworth; April 11,
Edward Everett; April 21, Friedrich Froebei; April 23, William Shake-
speare.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
To the Editors of the Kindergarten Magazine: — The long-ex-
pected book from the gifted pen of Susan E. Blow deserves a much more
extended review than is allowed by the shortness of the time between
its appearance and the date of your going to press. Yet I cannot refrain
from calling the attention of my fellow workers to so valuable an addi-
tion to our professional literature. In his excellent introduction to
"Symbolic Education," Dr. Wm. T. Harris says: "The first self-revela-
tion of the child is through play. He learns by it what he can do; what
he can do easily at first trial, and what he can do by perseverance and
contrivance. Thus he learns through play to recognize the potency
of those 'lords of life' (as Emerson calls them) that weave the tissue of
human experience, — volition, making and unmaking, obstinacy of ma-
terial, the magic of contrivance, the lordly might of perseverance that
can reenforce the moment by the hour (and time by eternity). The child
in his games represents to himself his kinship to the human race — his
identity as little self, with the social whole as his greater self."
This gives the keynote of the whole book. Miss Blow does not stop
to give any of the petty details or devices of the kindergarten work, ex-
cept where they serve to illustrate the principle involved, but sweeps
directly to the central thought of Froebel, — namely, the idea of Glied-
ganzes. The word is almost untranslatable as a word, but its meaning
is shown in every kindergarten gift, game, and occupation. The book
proceeds to unfold in a clear, forceful manner this thought; first, by
defining Rousseau's ideas of education. The book begins with the fol-
lowing characteristic sentence: "It has often been observed that the
dominant idea of an age gives form alike to its science, its politics, its
philosophy, its theology, and its education."
This wide synthesis of civilization is but the first few notes of the
prelude to the grand symphony which is to follow (her language is so
exquisite and so harmoniously expressed that one cannot refram from
comparing it to music). All the absurdities and self-contradictions of
Rousseau are shown, as well as the excellence with which he performed
his office of iconoclast in the necessary work of utterly breaking to
pieces the formal and false ideas of education which, at that time, pre-
vailed in the world. He was clearly a pioneer, and must be forgiven the
faults of his class. His ideas of nature, art, politics, society, religion,
and education are summed up in the one word "atomism," or individ-
ualism. He is thereby separated forever from the Froebellian thought,
which emphasizes the unity, or organic connectedness of all things.
666 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The second chapter is entitled " Development," and brings into clear
relief the figure of Pestalozzi, standing, as he does, on the battleground
between the ideas of development and those of atomism.
"It is," says Miss Blow, "in the conception of man as Gliedganzes
that Froebel advances beyond Pestalozzi, dominated by the atomistic
view of man. Pestalozzi was never able to grasp the significance of
social institutions;" and again, "very evident with such views it was im-
possible for Pestalozzi to see in institutions the revelation of man's larger
selfhood, and, failing in this vision, it was impossible for him to define
the 'harmonious development ' which was his ideal of education. There-
fore his educational experiments, while suggestive, were always felt by
competent observers to be disappointing."
Then follows the defining of the difference between Pestalozzi's
theory of education and that of Froebel.
The chapter ends with this significant paragraph: " Finally, the con-
ception of man as Gliedganzes of humanity supplies a standard by
which all systems of education may be tested. See man as a whole and
not as also a member, and you have Rousseau's atomic Emile, who at
the climax, or rather anti-climax, of an atomistic education remarks to
his atomic tutor that for such a supremely independent atom as himself
the world of organized society is no fit place." The balance of this
powerful paragraph is to be found on page 48 of " Symbolic Education."
Having thus cleared the way, as it were, of wrong and confusing
ideas as to the equal merits of the three great educational reformers of
modern times, the book now takes up, somewhat in detail, the philo-
sophic explanation of Froebel's system.
The third chapter gives the spiritual manifestations as well as the
historic development of the childhood of the race, and is full of sugges-
tions to the student of childhood who comprehends the value of such
study, having realized that the child must pass through these same
stages of consciousness. The "myth" is here taken up and its value
clearly and fully shown not only to the race as a means of expressing its
spiritual experiences, but also its value in the form of fairy tale in the
nursery.
Next follows a chapter on "The Symbolism of Childhood." This is
perhaps the most needed explanation in the book, as the utilitarian
ideas of today are doing all they can to drag the kindergarten away from
its true place, that of feeder and ngurisher of the child's emotions and
imagination, to the mere compilation oi facts, useful in after life. I can-
not do better than to quote Miss Blow's own eloquent words on this sub-
ject: "Is symbolic education original with Froebel? I think not. He
learned it from the prattle and play of the child. He learned it from
the childhood of the race. He learned it from simple-hearted mothers
as they played with their babies games like Pat-a-cake and the Little
Pig that went to Market. He learned it from kindly grandmothers,
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. 667
who, sitting by bright winter fires, related to wide-eyed auditors the
wonderful adventures of Thumblings, or the sorrows of Maid Maleen.
He learned it from the poets whose tropes and metaphors stir in the
dullest mind some consciousness of endless analogies between the life
of nature and the life of the soul. He learned it most of all from the
Great Teacher, who delighted to speak to the multitude in parables, and
who has connected our deepest spiritual experiences with the lilies of
the field, the pearl of great price, and the seed hidden deep in the
earth."
"The Meaning of Play" naturally enough follows such an explana-
tion as this, and the true, symbolic significance of Froebel's games is
here brought out. The remaining chapters, entitled " Old Lady Gair-
' fowl," "Pattern Experiences," and "Vortical Education," will be treated
in a later review. — Elizabeth Harrison, Chicago, III.
As many people fail to get hold of the true meaning of "Faust," the
greatest poem of modern times, we recommend to our readers the Com-
mentary on the poem by Mr. Denton J. Snider, which is interpretative
and full of suggestion. Kindergartners and all teachers and educators
will find these commentaries on the two parts of " Faust " of great value.
Very little has been said on this poem by the great scholars of the
world, and the professional critics were powerless in its presence; but
Mr. Snider, who is an educator, a poet, and a philosopher, has discov-
ered the universal laws of rational unfoldment from error into truth,
and he applies them to the study of this marvelous poem which is often,
on the surface, only weird, wild, and mystical. But we must learn that
the great poets are prophets and seers, and that they write with the
bared heart beating against the stone which their genius compels them
1.0 study and to understand, and the stone speaks in its own language,
which often needs to be translated and interpreted to the hearts not
willing to knock at this hard doorway for knowledge. Mr. Snider has
so truly identified himself with the kindergarten system of education,
that his work can be appreciated by every teacher or parent who
desires to become the true educator. — A. N. K.
In preparmg for the annual "keeping" of Froebel's birthday, teach-
ers will find it "well to read the " Froebel Letters," by Arnold H. Heine-
mann, brought out within the past year, and previously noticed in these
columns. While these are of great historic value, they at the same time
bring the reader into a personal touch, which in turn will inspire a
nobler faith in humanity. The word pictures which are drawn in these
letters help the student to look out upon the work of this man as it
were from his own standpoint and environment. The illustrations
themselves will be of interest to the children as well as kindergartner
and parents. Among these are a reproduction from a photograph of
Froebel himself, his birthplace, the school at Keilhau, the Mansion
668 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Marienthal, where he died, and the monument at Schweina. The anno-
tations and comments thrown in here and there by Mr. Heinemann, and
the reminiscences of Frau Louise Froebel, by his wife Marie Heine-
mann, lend an invaluable charm to the volume, which will appeal
directly to kindergartners. Price $1.25. See catalogue of Kindergar-
ten Literature Co.
"The Spirit of the New Education," by Louisa Parsons Hopkins, is
an invigorating volume. Every teacher should keep this book on her
shelf or table as a tonic, one from which she may periodically snatch a
paragraph to tone her daily effort and motives. The volume is made
up of occasional papers read by Mrs. Hopkins, each one of which was
prepared with a view to telling certain people certain things clearly and
warmly. The style of these has retained much of that fire and glow
which accompany the words of one espoused to a cause. At this pres-
ent time kindergartners would find great interest in reading the chapter
on Froebel's Birthday, to be found in this volume. Price $1.50.
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
How many Froebel badges do you need for the celebration on April
2ist? All orders must be sent in in advance. Price 5 cts. each; 50 cts.
per dozen.
Froebel birthday supplies. — We can send you Froebel portraits, 6ji
by 9 inches, on fine boards, at 6 cts. each, 10 for 50 cts., or loo for $3.50.
The same portrait on finished paper, 2 cts. each; $1.50 per hundred.
Order in advance for class use. Each child ought to have Froebel's
picture to take home.
Our new, fully illustrated Catalogue of books appears this month.
It contains portraits of authors never given before; also an essay on
books for children, and gives a completer list than ever, descriptive of
contents and purposes of books given.
The May number of the Kindergarten Magazine will be a " Pes-
talozzi " special edition, giving some remarkable papers concerning this
great life which must be more thoroughly studied by kindergartners.
Look out for important announcements in June number of this mag-
azine. It will be a jubilee number, being extra sized, giving a full and
glowing statement of the wonderful growth and outlook of the cause
everywhere. A splendid campaign document! Every kindergartner
ought to possess herself of ten or more copies for distribution and cir-
culation. For $1 we will send ten copies if ordered for this purpose.
Send in every item of vital importance concerning your work, for our
jubilee June number of Kindergarten Magazine, before May i.
Bound Volumes. — Vols. IV and V, handsomely bound in fine silk
cloth, giving the full year's work in compact shape, each $3.
Always. — Subscriptions are stopped on expiration, the last number
being marked, "With this number your subscription expires," and a
return subscription blank inclosed.
Always. — Our readers who change their addresses should imme-
diately notify us of same and save the return of their mail to us. State
both the new and the old location. It saves time and trouble.
Always — Send your subscription made payable to the Kindergarten
Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago, 111., either by money order,
express order, postal note, or draft. (No foreign stamps received.)
There are only a few copies of Vol. I of Child-Garden to be had.
They are now bound, and being rapidly exhausted. We desire to give
Vol. 6-41
670 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
our readers the first chance at purchasing them. Send for it before
they are all gone. Price $2.
Child-Garden Samples. — Send m lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
Remember some child's birthday with a gift of Child-Garden, only %\
per year.
We want our readers to know that the printing and binding depart-
ment of the Kindergarten Literature Company is in operation and ex-
cellently equipped for the getting out of all kinds of books and miscel-
laneous printing. Send for estimates and information.
Wanted — Back numbers of Kindergarten Magazine. We will
exchange any other number you want in Vols. IV, V, or VI, or any books
in our catalogue, for any back numbers of Vols. I, II, or III, except Vol.
I, No. 12; Vol. II, No. 3; Vol. Ill, No. 10; or Vol. I, Nos. i to 11. Ad-
dress Kindergarten Literature Co., Chicago.
Wanted — January, 1893, and March, 1893, numbers of Child-Gardett.
Other numbers exchanged for them.
The attention of teachers in public and private schools is called to
the opportunity afforded by the destruction of the World's Fair build-
ings to obtain excellent examples of architectural details in staff work.
It is possible to obtain at relatively small expense a variety of such
examples, including capitals, friezes, rosettes, brackets, etc., which,
after being cleaned and coated with alabastine (recipe for which will be
sent), will serve as useful a purpose for art instruction as casts which
would probably cost ten times as much. They are just as artistic as
these expensive casts, and would have an added value on account of
their association with the beautiful "White City." Any who desire in-
formation regarding these specimens of staff work, cost of same, etc.,
should correspond with Miss Ida M. Condit, 455/^ Elm street, Chicago,
111.
Too many to print; that is why we never use testimonials in our ad-
vertising. We are constantly receiving them from all parts of the
world. The Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk is the best in-
fant's food. Grocers and Druggists.
Here is a list of fifty-cent trial sets of choice seeds and plants: Set
U — 2 beautiful palms, two sorts, strong plants; set B — 16 packets choice
vegetable seeds, all different; set E — 20 packets choice flower seeds, all
different; set F— 10 lovely carnation pinks, ten sorts; set G — 10 prize-
winning chrysanthemums, ten sorts; set H — four superb French cannas,
four sorts; set J — 10 elegant ever-blooming roses, ten kinds; set K — 8
grand large-flowered geraniums, eight sorts; set M — 24 fine gladioli,
large flowering bulbs; set P — 6 hardy ornamental flowering shrubs, six
sorts; set R — 6 choice grapevmes, six sorts. Each set fifty cents. O-ne-
publishers' notes. 671
half each of any two of these sets, fifty cents. Any three sets for $1.25,
or five sets for $2. DeHvered at your post office prepaid; satisfaction
guaranteed. The Storrs & Harrison Co., Box B, Painesville, Lake Co., O.
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The great Canna beds displayed on the east plaza of the Horticul-
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This house exhibited twenty grand seedlings, originated by M.
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6/2 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
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poppies, and vegetables, besides engravings innumerable of both flowers
and vegetables. The " Guide," which James Vick's Sons of Rochester,
N. Y., send by mail for ten cents, contains 112 pages. Aside from its
pleasing pictorial features, it contains much practical information of
value to amateur gardeners.
The Newest Sweet Peas. — For the last two years sweet peas have
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.dress Wm. Henry Maule, 171 1 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Medallion from Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus Exhibit at World's Fair.
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.— MAY, 1894.— No. 9-
PESTALOZZIAN LITERATURE IN AMERICA.
WILL S. MONROE.
THIS article purports to be a historical survey of the
Pestalozzian literature in America, a brief state-
ment of the publications which have contributed,
in an important sense, to the introduction of the
Swiss reformer's ideals in the New World. No mention is
made of the English publications which have had large sales
here, or of the work of the disciples of Pestalozzi, — Krusi,
Sheldon, Mason, Johonnot, and others, — who have done so
much to realize these ideals.
William Maclure, the social scientist and educational re-
former, a man with broad ideas and generous purposes, was
perhaps the first person to introduce Pestalozzian literature
in the New World. Mr. Maclure was a well-to-do Scotch-
man who settled in Philadelphia at the beginning of the
present century, and as early as June 6, 1806, published in
the National Intelligence, published at Washington, an ac-
count of the educational activities of the Swiss reformer.
He had visited Pestalozzi's school at Burgdorf the summer
of 1805, and, convinced of the value of his methods, had in-
duced one of Pestalozzi's teachers — Joseph Neef. then lo-
cated in Paris — to go to America and preach the new gos-
pel of education. For this purpose he agreed to pay Neef's
expenses to America, and "to make good to Professor Neef
whatever sum as salary he may receive for teaching said
674 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
methods that falls short of five hundred dollars per annum
during the time he may continue to teach the system of
Pestalozzi."
In 1808 Neef published his "Sketch of a Plan of Educa-
tion," a book of 168 pages, in which he gives an account of
Pestalozzi's work in Switzerland, and with great clearness
outlines his own ideals. This was doubtless the first book
on Pestalozzianism published in America; and although it
contains much that is yet vital in education, it has long
been out of print. Neef published a second book in 1813 —
"The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts
of Writing and Reading," based on the methods of Pesta-
lozzi. Neef himself was a teacher of excellent ideas, and
did much to organize educational work on a thoroughly
rational basis. He taught first in Philadelphia and later in
Louisville, Ky., and closed his life at New Harmony, Ind.,
where he had been connected with Richard Owen's com-
munity.
The Academiciaji, published in New York city, beginning
with the number for January, 1819, began a series of articles
on Pestalozzi's work at Yverdon. These articles were of a
most appreciative character, and did much toward making
known in America the reforms that were being worked out
in Switzerland. The same year Professor John Grissom
published his "Year in Europe," in which he gives a sym-
pathetic account of his visit to Pestalozzi, and the character
of the work done at Yverdon.
William Russell began the publication of the Jour7^al of
Educaiio?i in 1826, in which various articles were published
describing the reforms of Pestalozzi. The Afmals of Educa-
tion, published by William C. Woodbridge from 1831 to 1838,
continued the good work. Victor Cousin's "Report on the
State of Public Instruction in Prussia," as translated by
Sarah Austin, was printed in New York in 1835, ^^^ proba-
bly did more than any other publication, up to this time, to
disseminate the reforms so near to the heart of Pestalozzi
This book was widely circulated; and preceding, as it did
the birth of the free school systems, its influence was great.
PESTALOZZIAN LITERATURE IN AMERICA. 675
A. Bronson Alcott as early as 1829 had published his "Prin-
ciples and Methods of Pestalozzi," and, associated with his
brother, had done much to put into practice Pestalozzi's
ideas in the- schools which he conducted in Massachusetts
and Connecticut.
But to the veteran educator, author, and editor, Dr.
Henry Barnard, is due the largest measure of praise for the
publication of Pestalozzian literature in America. The
English-speaking world owes much to Henry Barnard for
his activity and self-sacrifices in behalf of educational liter-
ature, but in no one department is the obligation greater
than the line of promulgating Pestalozzian theories and
methods; and this he has .been doing for over fifty-five
years. In 1839 he published "Pestalozzi, Franklin, and
Oberlin," a monograph of twenty-four pages; the same, en-
larged to eighty pages, was published in 1880. "Pesta-
lozzi's Educational Labors for the Poor and the Popular
Schools" was reprinted in pamphlet form from his "Re-
formatory and Preventive Institutions," in 1847.
Dr. Barnard printed his "Pestalozzi and his Method of
Instruction" in 1849, ^ monograph of forty-eight pages;
and eight years later he printed a translation of Karl von
Raumer's " Life and Educational Views of Pestalozzi," a vol-
ume of 126 pages. The year following ( 1858) he translated
and published Raumer's account of Pestalozzi's assistants
and disciples (224 pages), and the same year these two
books were brought together and published in one volume,
— "Pestalozzi and Pestalozzianism," — the most comprehen-
sive account of the Swiss educator's work to be found in
the English language.
This volume, besides giving the memoirs of Pestalozzi
and his associates from Von Raumer, contains the best parts
of "Leonard and Gertrude," "How Gertrude Teaches her
Children," "Christopher and Alice," and "Evening Hour of
a Hermit." Several editions have appeared since 1859. In
1862 Dr. Barnard published a pamphlet of sixteen pages, —
"Pestalozzi, Fellenberg. and Wehrli in Relation to the In-
dustrial Element in Education," — and in 1881 a thirty- two-
676 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
page pamphlet on " Pestalozzi and Froebel in Child Cul-
ture." " Pestalozzi and Other Swiss Educators," a volume
of 740 pages, containing memoirs of Pestalozzi, Zwingle,
Calvin, Rousseau, Girard, Fellenberg, Mehrli, Kuratli, Agas-
siz, etc., appeared in 1882. These memoirs were republished
from Barnard's American Journal of Edncatio7i, begun in 1855,
thirty-one large volumes of which have appeared during the
past forty years. In this one finds the very best accounts
of Pestalozzi that have appeared in the different European
languages, — a monument to Dr. Barnard's great devotion to
his calling.
Hermann Krusi, a son of one of Pestalozzi's first assist-
ants, and for many years connected with the state normal
school at Oswego, N. Y., made an important contribution to
the Pestalozzian literature of America in his "Pestalozzi,
His Life, Work, and Influence," in 1875. ^'^ abridged trans-
lation of "Leonard and Gertrude," by Eva Charming, was
printed by Heath in 1885; and in 1889 Margaret Cuthbert-
son Crombie's translation of Guimp's "Life of Pestalozzi"
was published by Bardeen, and the same, as translated by
Russell, has been included by Doctor Harris in the interna-
tional educational series. So that he who "lived like a beg-
gar that he might teach beggars how to live like kings," is
perhaps today the most read educator in America.
Leland Stanford {Jr.) University, California.
PESTALOZZrS CHIEF LESSON TO EDUCATORS.
ELIZABETH HARRISOx\.
AS we reach the door of the nineteenth century, we
experience almost an infinite relief in turning
from such a life as that of Rousseau's, to the con-
templation of the life and work of Pestalozzi. So
great was his soul, so gentle was his spiritual nature, that
deformity, disease, poverty, obscurity, misrepresentation,
and even failure in his life work did not make his sweet
nature less gracious or harden his heart toward his fellow-
man.
A contemporary, in writing of him, says: "Notwith-
standing all his imperfections, we cannot help loving him."
Surely this is as high a tribute as can be paid to anyone.
His strength was so great that it overshadowed his weak-
nesses. We get a glimpse of his tender, lovable nature, in
a letter written to a friend concerning tlie work which he
had done with the eighty orphan and vagabond children
whom he had gathered about him in an old convent in the
small Swiss town of Stanz, after the great (?) Napoleon
had made desolate that region.
He writes: "Every assistance, everything done for them
in their need, all the teaching that they received, came di-
rectly from me. My hand lay upon their hands, my eye
rested upon their eyes, my tears flowed with their tears, my
smiles accompanied theirs, their food was mine, their drink
was mine. I had no housekeeper, no friend, nor servant.
I slept in their midst; I was the last to go to bed at night
and the first to rise in the morning. I prayed with them
and taught them in their beds before they went to sleep."
Surely the comprehension of the meaning of those
words, "Our Father," which had been uttered eighteen
hundred years before, was beginning to dawn upon man-
kind! Pestalozzi agreed with Comenius, that things must
678 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
come before words; that knowing and doing must go hand
in hand. He accepted with Rousseau the truth that self-
activity lies at the bottom of all real education, and he
added many and valuable axioms to the educational theory
of the world; but it seems to me that the greatest thing
which he did for mankind was to demonstrate the power oi
love as an element in education.
Nor can we overestimate this personal sympathy. You
mothers can give to your children the best of teachers, and
can send them to the most expensive schools; but nothing
can take the place of personal interest and love. Your
hand must rest upon their hands, your eye must look into
their eyes. You must take part in their failures and their
victories.
Chicago Kindergarten College.
GOOD NIGHT.
EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER.
Softly down the happy valley
Fades the lingering summer day;
On the hills its latest blushes
Die in rosy gleams away.
Bird and bee and blossom bright
Whisper low a sweet good night!
Swallows to the steeples flying
Sweep with silent wing along,
And the bees are trooping homeward
With a dull and drowsy song.
Bird and bee and blossom bright
Whisper low a sweet good night!
Starry eyes! above your brightness
I can see the shadows creep;
Tender brow! across your whiteness
Falls the dusky wing of sleep.
Bird and bee and blossom bright
Whisper low a sweet good night!
A WEEK WITH GOETHE: HIS ART, HIS TEACH-
ING, AND HIS CULTURE.
AMALIE HOFER.
THE seventh annual literary school, under the aus-
pices of the Chicago Kindergarten College, with
Mr. Denton J. Snider, director, was held in Chi-
cago during Easter week, beginning Monday even-
ing, March 26, and ending Saturday morning, March 31.
The ten lectures on Goethe and his art were delivered on
the successive mornings and evenings of this week, and
were well attended by literary students, educators, philos-
ophers, preachers, parents, philanthropists, as well as social
and political economists. The profound range of the great
poet's doctrine provided thought stimulus for the intelligent
workers of truth in every phase of the world's activity.
Goethe was considered by this school as the world-poet,
rather than the great German literary genius; hence the
school comprised many nationalities in its membership.
The fact that such an earnest nucleus of students was gath-
ered together in the heart, as it w^ere, of the New World,
was a substantiation of Goethe's own prophetic hope of
America.
Mr. Snider conducted the school in a concise and defi-
nite manner, as if no time should be lost in circuitous com-
ments. He threw down the gauntlet of discussion on all
vital points, and avoided none of the challenges of opposi-
tional forces. His mode of expression is characteristic, and
those familiar with him only through his books expect,
upon meeting, to find an energetic, explosive personality,
under whose emphatic assertions the ordinary platform
trembles. His convictions break forth as if long pent, as-
sert themselves, and take the form of philosophic epigram.
The Commentaries of Mr. Snider are to be found on the
library shelf of every literary student. .
68o KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The discussions, which were open to the entire school,
were animated, often eloquent and fervid. Light from
many points of view was thrown upon all vital questions,
and remarkable freedom and flow of thought was thereby
occasioned.
It was fitting and appropriate that the study-week of the
world-poet should be opened by poets, themselves inspired
to verse by the subject of their earnest study. Mr. Louis J.
Block, of Chicago, read a poem dedicated to and written for
this particular school. The following lines, taken from the
same, will be its own best introduction:
What is the secret that has ever been ringing
Through the wide air since the world was young?
Hearken! Afar the glad thrilling singing
From the dim depths of the mystery sprung!
Yea, the mighty and manifold witnesses
Speak the same message in many a tongue,
Bend the same truth with soft yielding fitnesses
Unto the heart with questionings wrung;
And though today the duller-brained scoffer
Scorns the clear music as aimless and cold,
Yet be assured from the infinite coffer
Grandeurs are taken just as of old.
Poesy now, as in days long ended,
Points to the realm that is freed from Time's chains;
One with deep thought that has purely transcended
Earth and her ever-mutable gains.
Into that region I venture to enter,
Commune there with those who have been
Guide to all men and heaven-sent mentor
On the way upward we are striving to win.
Faint though the words I utter before men,
Yet am I certain they fell from the lips
Strongest of those who have lived to restore men.
Out of the night we walk, and eclipse
Him of old Greece, and the dark-browed Italian,
England's great master, all grasping and bold,
Bringing each in his swift-sailing galleon
Untold treasures of spiritual gold;
Take therefrom and their hands that proffer
Jeweled leaves for his serene brow,
Latest of angels, whose subtle dreams offer
Latest of -lights on the paths we tread now.
A WEEK WITH GOETHE. 68 1
Mr. Block is well known as an exponent of that modern
school of practical philosophy which dedicates its best
fruits to the cause of common education. -The poem, read
by Mr. Snider, was remodeled from the one presented by
him before the previous Goethe school of 1888-89, and was
read with the author's accustomed energy, accompanied by
happy prose comments. The poetic evening closed with
the sonnet on Goethe by Mr. Henry D. Hazzen, of Mt. Car-
roll, 111.
The Tuesday morning session was given over to the
consideration o| " Goethe and the Conduct of Life," in an
earnest paper by Mrs. Caroline K. Sherman. Mrs. Sherman
is well known as a literary student, an active worker in the
Chicago Woman's Club, and a member of the board of edu-
cation of the same city. This paper called forth a warm
discussion on modern education, in which Mr. H. O. Bright
of the county schools took an eloquent part, as well as oth-
ers in practical fields of reform and church work.
Tuesday evening Dr. W. H. Thomas read a lengthy
paper on "Literature and Religion," in which he defined
the relative places of literature and religion in life, but
sought at the same time to eliminate the distinctions cur-
rently made between the secular and the sacred literature.
He said: "The line should be drawn bet^veen the false and
the true, the hurtful and the helpful, the good and the bad."
He further traced the religious or ethical problems on which
great literature hinges, and showed that "the last and great-
est poem and the last and greatest truth of religion are at
one."
Mr. Denton J. Snider occupied Wednesday morning with
the "Four Tragedies in Faust," giving a most comprehen-
sive view of the pivotal movements in the entire poem, in-
cluding both the first and second parts. The first of the
four parts, as subdivided by Mr. Snider, is the tragedy of
Margaret, by which the family and home institutions are
wrecked. Mr. Snider pictured with great force the remorse
of Margaret, her refusal to be saved, her own self-condem-
nation and resignation to God's judgment, her death and
682 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
renewed life. With Margaret death dies, and life eternal
is born. The second tragedy is that of Helen and her son,
which in the poem is presented as phantasmagoria, illus-
trating the race experiences which are to be repeated by
the individual. We must go back to Hellas to be rejuve-
nated by a larger culture, and so break the bottle in which
we, like Homunculus, are sealed up. The individual cannot
live for culture's sake, nor for his own sake, but for others.
The third tragedy is that of the aged couple, Philemon and
Baucis, who stand in the way of universal progress. They
must be removed, that Faust's work of redeeming the land
from the sea may go on. It is the type of the past receding
before the present. The fourth tragedy as named by Mr.
Snider is the death of Faust, who, having overcome the
"world, the flesh, and the devil," has created a new heaven
within himself, and a new earth. He has created a free land
for free men, and, like Margaret, has earned a new life, —
immortality.
The discussion of this lecture was vigorous. Dr. Wm.
T. Harris followed Mr. Snider with a dissent, saying that he
found but three tragedies, since the final solution of Faust's
problem was good. The scene in heaven which follows the
death of Faust, as also that of Margaret, clearly indicates
the poet's intention to disclose the higher and continued
life. After all, the only tragedy was that of Mephistoph-
eles.
Wednesday evening was given to the discussion of " Goe-
the's Pedagogic Ideas," by Dr. Harris, who reviewed the
larger portions of the Wilhelm Meister and Elective Aflfini-
ties. The vital suggestions and practical comments made
by Dr. Harris on this occasion were worthy to be digested
by every educator in the land, and it is with regret that we
are unable to reproduce the same at greater length at this
time; but we hold the promise of Mr. Harris to bring the
substance of his discussion in full in a future number of this
journal.
Marlowe's "Faustus" was presented to the school on
Thursday morning, by that marvelous mediator between
A WEEK WITH GGETHE. 683
dramatic and literary art, between the stage and the library,
Mr. Richard G. Moulton. Under the fire of his scholarly
and artistic presentation, the audience was carried back into
mediaeval history, and a graphic review of the world's situa-
tion was placed as the stage setting for the reading of the
drama which was to follow. The pregnancy of a time in
which a new world was discovered, in which by astronomical
ventures the heavens were enlarged, and the mental life of
men expanded by the revival of classical learning, was in-
fused into this background until his audience fairly felt the
air let into the imprisoned mediaeval world, and saw the
straining, eager people hungry for possessions. The con-
trast was drawn between the Mephisto'pheles of Goethe and
the trembling Lucifer of Marlowe with great dramatic force.
Mr. Moulton defined the actor as a lens which takes light
from all parts of the play and concentrates the same upon
every point. The technical or analytical student of a drama
must never lose sight of the actor's interpreting power.
"There is nothing in the world of fact which cannot be
used in the world of art." Here followed the reading of
the tragedy, which Mr. Moulton accomplished with great
dramatic fire and poise, at the same time commenting upon
the vital points.
In discussing this rendering Mr. Snider and Dr. Harris
traced the transitions of the Faust legend through history,
and showed how Goethe motived his drama that it might
gather together all the threads of mythology and illuminate
them with the Christian spirit of humanity and reality.
Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie was enthusiastically greeted on
Thursday evening, and discoursed freely and broadly on the
topic of "Goethe's Maxims." He made suggestive com-
parisons between the environments and productivity of
Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe. The latter was
preeminently an artist, an Olympian born in an age of
Titanic unrest; he held his spontaneous genius to the rigid
rules of art. He was a poet with a philosophic bent; the
greatest of art crjtics, who with increasing insight and ex-
perience slowly distilled a philosophy of art. The ration-
684 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
alizing element runs through all of Goethe's works, and his
practical, varied experiences made it unavoidable that max-
ims and philosophic statements should fairly flow from his
pen or lips, — the flow outward, as it were, of a great inner
force. Mr. Mabie delineated with gratifying clearnes's that
quality of genius produced by the blending together of
character and idea. Goethe was primarily concerned with
life itself, and to him art was the means of expressing life.
Hence the poet saw everything in relation to man, and his
maxims were the natural record of his fundamental discov-
eries, observations, generalizations, and concrete convic-
tions.
This paper was happily discussed by Mr. Snider, Pro-
fessor Moulton, Dr. Harris, and Colonel Francis Parker,
and the remarks were closed by Mr. Mabie himself.
Dr. Harris made the Friday morning session glad with
his consideration of Goethe's Sociology. In a genial, fa-
therly manner he took up the world, with all its myriad of
interdependencies, its overlapping forces, and evolving con-
ditions, and holding it in the hollow of his hand, he traced
.its sociologic history. Dr. Harris has reached that stage of
the "philosophic mind" which enables him to smile down
upon the cosmos as may a mother upon her growing child.
It was a surprise to his audience to find him treating of so-
ciology from the side of woman's part in the industries, insti-
tutions, and evolutions of the same. He indicated wherein
Goethe was the first to see woman's emancipation and work
for the same; how he provided a means of solving the
modern problems of industrial and social reform. Goethe
sees how through woman comes the final freeing of man,
through the conquest of his conditions and the attaining of
self-determination. Goethe in the Wilhelm Meister is
prophet of such modern institutions as social settlements,
industrial colonies, and rational education.
In the discussion which followed, Mr. Snider said: "The
idea of civil society is contained in the relation of the indi-
vidual to society and the state." Mr. Louis Block showed
with ereat fervor how Goethe's ideas are world ideas; he
A WEEK WITH GOETHE. 685
had an aversion to abstract schemes, but he held to a world-
historical movement as the type of all that is real and im-
portant. Mr. Mabie answered several objections to Goe-
the's estimates of institutional life, as follows: Some men
imagine that society can be bettered by acts of legislation;
but that other class of men, to which Goethe belongs, con-
ceive all things in the concrete, — viz., that only through
the divine unfoldment of thought in the individual, then in
the race, comes salvation. Society is saved only as the in-
dividual is saved. Society is not an abstract institution,
but a living organism. The men of the world can scarcely
judge, from the standpoint of a few years and limited ex-
perience, another, who, like Goethe, looks off through the
centuries into eternity. Mr. O. P. Gifford, in a most per-
suasive application of the previous statements, unfolded the
lesson of the future, as that method of education whereby
man should learn to use himself for humanity, not humanity
for himself.
Mr. Mabie occupied the lecture sessions of Friday even-
ing and Saturday morning in his own matchless way.
These sessions were attended to the full limit of the lecture
hall, and the enthusiastic interchange of ideas of the previ-
ous days had dissolved all accustomed formalities of a lec-
ture course. "Myths in Literature" was treated by Mr.
Mabie in such a poetic, suggestive way, that the common
experience of his audience was that of being set to think-
ing, each after his own kind, to a teeming degree. He
traced those early intimations — soul myths — which come
into the world with men; those nature affinities which prove
man of the same soil as the oak or the grass blade; that in-
timacy with nature which four thousand years of contact
and interchange of sinew and bone has generated. He pic-
tured the "genius of stillness" under the profound spell of
which men rediscover themselves. The myth arises from
the repeated experience of the individual destiny becoming
merged into the destiny of the race. Men first dream, then
verify the dream. Science and mythology are counterparts.
Nature is the soul of man, and needs him as her interpreter,
686 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and the soul of man answers back to the soul of nature. If
we know how to see nature, we shall see what the old Greeks
saw, — oreads, dryads, and nymphs. The first poets were
the myth makers, and the last poets will again be myth
makers. We must go back to the training of the imagina-
tion in our educations, for myth making represents the free
play of creative activity. The teacher must be a poet.
The discussion of this paper would be most substantial
food for educators, could it be printed in full. We can but
indicate the chief points brought out by the various strong
spokesmen who took part in the same; viz.: Mr. Snider de-
fined the inytlius as an incarnation of spirit; hence the great
work of education, as well as religion, is the interpretation
of the myths. Dr. Wilson said: Every myth has a truth at
the bottom, hence it is not sacrilege to speak of the Old
Testament stories as myths. Dr. Harris said: Myths will
continue so long as there are poets. The poet makes a
truth transparent. Superintendent Bright asked: What is
the place of the myth in our common school education?
Mr. Mabie summed up the purposes of such literary
schools, of all higher study and education, in his discourse
on "Goethe's Method of Self-culture." Culture is more
than knowledge. Goethe took the whole plunge into the
stream of art, and swam in it all his life. The reason he is
so frequenth^ misunderstood is that men forget that he is
portraying the drama of the human soul rather than telling
the story of a certain man's actual life. The essence of cul-
ture is to secure those conditions which bring our powers
to highest completion and the highest productivity. Ac-
quirement of knowledge is not culture. Culture is not the
development of a type, but the freeing of a personality.
Culture produces as freely as nature. Wordsworth incor-
porated nature in his own being. Read his poem of the
"Daffodils." Books were of little consequence to Shake-
,speare. He was not a man of learning, but of life, because
he had drained human life of its deepest significance. The
Greeks were the most cultivated people in the whole history
-of the world, because their culture was based on life and
A WEEK WITH GOETHE. 68/
nature. Mr. Mabie illustrated his theme with a clear-
sighted comparison of the two statesmen Sumner and Peri-
cles. The former added culture onto his statesmanship;
the latter was statesman and cultured man in the same
breath, for the whole life of his Greek race poured through
him. Culture is not a man of information, but feeling play-
ing on life. As illustrations of this degree of culture are
the lives of Emerson, Curtis, and Lowell, the latter being
defined as a great human soul enriched by contact with life.
Mr. Mabie embodied to his audience the vital culture which
he espoused, and a warm, human "Amen" was expressed in
the cheer which followed his closing sentence.
Mr. Snider opened the discussion by making a clear-cut
distinction between erudition and culture. Stores of so-
called learning do not make man internally free; which
thought was supplemented by -Mr. Mabie's statement that
the art of culture was to get rid of strain and strenuous ef-
fort, to supplant the Titanic stage with the Olympian.
The next school will turn its illuminating power upon
mythology, and trace man's search after truth, in the vari-
ous race traditions. Homer will be interpreted, as well as
the various mythologies of North and East, not excluding
the West. Students may look forward to this school, as-
sured that their fate will be the reverse of that impulsive
truth-searcher of Saais, in Schiller's poem, who drew back
the curtain from the wonderful statue only to fall dead. The
sequel to this folk-story is now being written in the lives of
hundreds of students, who search out world truths that they
may live.
HOW CAN WE ACQUIRE A BETTER APPRECIA-
TION FOR TRUE ART?
I.
WALTER S. PERRY.
HOW can we acquire a better appreciation for true
art?
First, by creating a higher appreciation among
the people, teachers and supervisors of drawing,
of what art education in public education really means.
.Second, by divorcing the terms "manual training" and
"mechanical training," and bringing manual training to
mean much more of aesthetic training, without loss to me-
chanical training.
Third, by elevating the work in art schools. True art
training should go hand in hand with elementary drawing,
that the majority of students may be brought to an appreci-
ation of art, even if they do not remain long in the schools
and do not become skilled in execution.
Fourth, by elevating the character of our public exhibi-
tions; by awarding prizes for pictures that possess much
more than technic, and by demanding that the low, coarse,
and often vulgar exhibits shall be excluded.
Fifth, by creating museums — not large museums in
great centers only, but small museums in many centers; by
arranging for the proper explanation of the collections; and
by so managing the museums that many different exhibits
may be shown to the people each year.
' When drawing was first introduced into the schools the
people had no appreciation of the full importance of the
subject. It was useless trying to develop drawing on the
plane of art education. It was difficult to get the com-
munity to consider the subject of drawing in any phase, of
sufficient value to make it a part of the school curriculum.
First came the work from flat copies, then everything
tended toward original design. The arguments used for
A BETTER APPRECIATION OF ART. 689
the advancement of drawing were simply of a utilitarian
character and at first in one direction only, — the making
of designers in order to do away with the necessity of intro-
ducing foreign designs. Children were required to make
original designs, and for material were given irregular
shapes and told to fill them with something entirely orig-
inal.
Work from flat copies gave way to object drawing, but
the latter was also carried to an extreme; even today some
people seem to think it almost a sin to make use in any way
of a flat copy, notwithstanding the fact that the vast num-
ber of historic ornaments exist largely in the flat and not in
the round.
Drawing from objects may defeat its purpose if carried
on to the exclusion of everything else, if the objects chosen
are inartistic, and are drawn and shaded in a careless man-
ner. Again, much work has been done from the black-
board, the drawings being made by the ordinary teacher;
but as the ordinary teacher is not an artist, children are led
to copy bad drawings.
• There also came a time when the making of working
drawings became an important subject, and that too was
carried to a great extreme. The old-style mechanical draw-
ing left in use a hard mechanical line. It was necessary to
educate the people to greater freedom; this freedom meant,
among other things, a broader, freer, grayer line; yet this
was also carried to the extreme. Small paper gave place to
large. Children were forced to draw on sheets almost as
large as the top of their desks, and to make lines an eighth
of an inch in width.
Now the educational pendulum swings in another direc-
tion, and we are asked to believe that the only way to lay a
foundation for aesthetic training is to abhor everything of
an educational character, and allow the children to draw
anything they please. Sequential development is often ig-
nored, and in the primary schools the children are told to
draw objects far beyond their comprehension in form or
outline. If the drawing has any resemblance whatever to
Vol 6-43
690 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the object, so that a person can guess at the name of the
same, it is considered a sufficient result. Procedure is
made on the basis that it is not at all necessary to lead the
child to a higher appreciation of good form and outline
than exists within himself; that nothing should come from
without, but all from within. Simply shake the child up,
and whatever conies out from within is termed "free ex-
pression"; and this is the end of education. It reminds
me of a story of General Porter's, who said that the last
thing he saw when he left England on his way to France
was an PLnglish soldier with a red coat and blue trousers,
and the first thing he saw when he arrived in France was a
, French soldier with a blue coat and red trousers, where-
upon he exclaimed, "I now understand the whole matter.
To make an Englishman a Frenchman you have simply to
turn him upside down."
And so the real benefits of free expression are defeated
by scorning everything which pertains to adequate material
and systematic work.
At the time when a child is so young that he has little
within, it is said: "Give the child freedom. Let him *do
what he likes to do. If he likes to draw those things which
are beyond his comprehension, let him do it. If he de-
lights in drawing ugly objects, let him draw them. If he
likes to paint his objects modeled in clay, allow him to
paint them."
What the world needs is intelligence, and that golden
element, "common sense." Freedom controlled is civiliza-
tion; freedom uncontrolled is the seed of evil and laziness,
"One can only enjoy what he knows well; otherwise all is
meaningless and confusion. The novelty may attract, the
color may please, but this is only the sensation of an unde-
veloped creature." True recognition and true understand-
ing are gained'only through^education. We cannot express
more than has been impressed upon the mind. A well-
known artist recently said: "The most discouraging thing
in American amateur art today comes from the fact that so
many are trying by so-called freedom of expression to find
A BETTER APPRECIATION OF ART. 69 1
some short, easy road to art." He added: "What the stu-
dents need is to realize more fully that it requires serious,
hard, persevering effort to learn to draw, years of patient
study, and a wide acquaintance with the good work of
others."
To me nothing is more discouraging at the present time
than this wild shooting beyond the mark in the attempt to
glean from the child the freest expression. We do want
free expression, and no one believes more strongly in free
expression than myself; but unless it is carried on with a
constant searching for beauty of form and beauty of outline,
w^e shall bring upon the schools the coarsest conception of
drawing and of art. There is danger that free expression,
like other lines of work mentioned, will be carried to the
extreme and lead to the utmost carelessness. To allow
children constantly to make drawings in a careless and in-
different manner; to permit the drawings thus made to
pass as satisfactory results, simply because they convey to
the eye a rude picture, rather than to hold up to the stu-
dent an ideal of excellence of form and outline, is to cease
to be teachers and allow the children to become careless
imitators.
Indeed, it is difficult to understand how wc are to get
any art education into the schools if procedure is made on
any such basis. It is as necessary to surround the student
with good material, and then lead him to know what is
good and why it is good, as it is to furnish him with good
literature. Incorrect use of English is carefully avoided in
the schoolroom, and it is universally conceded that bad
grammar and misspelled words have a pernicious influence.
We know that if the ordinary child is left to himself to
select his own manner of speech, the tendency is downward
rather than upward. In the same way, if the student exer-
cises his own choice in the selection of objects to draw, and
is permitted to look upon his own work as the only stand-
ard of excellence, rather than become acquainted with a
higher type than that of his own conception, the tendency
in his art education will be in the same direction.
692 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
It is as positively harmful to allow a student to behold
simply his own work or the work of an untrained teacher
which is placed upon the blackboard, as it is to allow him
to become familiar with misspelled words or ungrammatical
sentences. The crude productions become vitiated exam-
ples for study, and have their retrograde influence.
It is a matter of great regret that in giving attention to
"free expression," so little is often given to beauty of form,
beauty of outline, and beauty of line. We must bring into
our schoolrooms beautiful objects, and it is very necessary
that the students should be surrounded with beautiful ma-
terial. Inasmuch as flat decoration has formed such an im-
portant part in the development of art, the children should
become acquainted with the development of the best orna-
ment of historic styles, and its application to decorative
purposes. They should also be given drawings that illus-
trate good composition, harmony and proportion, and artis-
tic rendering. We must train the students to study every
element which enters into the outline of a beautiful object.
Th£y must learn what it is that gives beautiful proportion,
and why emphasis has been given to one portion of the
outline and not to another.
The finished .type of the Greek anthemion has reached
such a high state of perfection that it would be almost im-
possible to vary the outline in any degree whatever without
destroying that type of beauty for which it stands. So the
children must belled to look carefully at their drawings,
after they have given to them the first .free expression of
form, and, studying the outline in every detail, add a little
here or cut off a portion there, according to judgment, in
order to make the most perfect composition possible as a
whole.
It is absolutely necessary to provide the schools with
better material, and something more must be done than has
been done. Museums are being founded that the people
may become acquainted with artistic examples. All art
schools are equipped, not only with casts, but with pho-
tographs, charts, plates of ornament, and costly books.
A BETTER APPRECIATION OF ART. 693
Every opportunity is furnished the student to study fine
illustrative examples; how much more, then, are good, ar-
tistic examples needed for study by the teachers and the
pupils of the public schools!
The development of aesthetic taste and a knowledge of
art go hand in hand with educational principles. The two
should so harmonize as to make the broadest foundation
for art culture as well as for education. Let us unite with
free expression, good, intelligent, and sequential methods
of work, that the child may continually be lifted higher
than himself and be led to appreciate beauty at every step
of the way. Whatever he does, let it be the best possible
work from the best examples obtainable.
Much more should be required of the supervisor. The
supervisor who introduces and carries on the work in draw-
ing should possess a sound art education, power and adap-
tation to school conditions, a knowledge of child life, ability
to formulate such a course of study as to show a constant
development and sequence from the earliest grade upward;
the placing of this work on so broad a basis as to stand by
itself and for itself alone, without necessitating the ped-
dling out of weekly or monthly exercises to the children;
and by placing in the hands of the teachers and pupils as
adequate material, books, apparatus, etc., as would be re-
quired in the successful prosecution of any other line of
study in the ordinary school curriculum. Art education
can only become a successful feature in the public school
"course of instruction when there is accorded to it the same
amount of material help that is needed for other studies;
and inasmuch as it deals with form, more objective aids are
required than in almost any other study.
My second proposition is to the effect that we can se-
cure a greater appreciation for good form by divorcing the
terms "manual training" and "mechanical training," and
by bringing manual training to mean much more of xs-
thetic training, without loss to mechanical training.
( To be coficluded.)
EDITORIAL NOTES.
It has been current among educators of the last quarter
of a century to group the names of three educational re-
formers,— viz.: Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel. These
names have been carelessly interchanged, by unthinking
teachers, as representing the same general notion of peda-
gogy. They have come to stand for a certain advocacy of
so-called "natural methods," until a hazy tradition has con-
founded and compounded their respective doctrines into a
mixture which smacks of unwarranted enthusiasm, vague
theory, unpractical experiment, and sad failure. Parallel
to this misunderstood estimate of the three men who suc-
cessively agitated the waters of pedagogy for a century and
a half, there has existed a growing body of educators whom
we might well designate as pedagogic explorers. These
have studied into the lives, works, national environment,
and historic influences of all educational reformers. Then-
interest has called forth the publication of scores of emi-
nently interesting biographies and other books, until today
there remains no acceptable excuse for teachers and patrons
of schools to maintain ignorance of such history of educa-
tion.
It was but six years ago we attended a Western teachers'
institute. The department of pedagogy was conducted on
the text-book plan, each student reading a paragraph and
restating the meaning in his or her own words. The turn
came to a heavy-faced woman who had no doubt taught a
decade of years in the same rural school. Her paragraph
contained a scant description of a certain German educa-
tional extremist, the substance of which she put into the
following words: "Froebel had straight hair, high cheek
bones, and a dark skin like an American Indian, and his
methods were about as uncivilized." Her impression of
this forerunner was as crude as was that abroad in Palestine,
when came that other John the Baptist who was merely
EDITORIAL NOTES. 695
a voice crying in the wilderness. The professor who occu-
pied the chair of pedagogy nodded approval to the sum-
mary, and passed on to dispatch the next name in the book.
Not one word was spoken of the profound earnestness, the
consecrated research, the life-long struggle and devotion to
a conviction, by which this externally unlovely personality
proved his "methods." The professor of pedagogy did not
unfold one principle or ideal by which Froebel motived his
innovations, nor did he reveal to those heavy-faced, plod-
ding, conscientious teachers one ray of that illuminating
nature-power which Froebel recognized as animating every
human being, whether the one taught or the one teaching.
He himself was no doubt ignorant of the reconstructive ele-
ment which is the proof of all education, that leavening ele-
ment which reconstructs the teacher in the very act of his
teaching.
Similar ignorances exist among professionals today.
How many of our readers know the relative places occupied
in educational history by Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel?
We find, upon fully studying the careers of the three men,
that Pestalozzi stands as a transition between the other two.
Miss Susan Blow says of him: "There are undoubtedly
many points of resemblance between Pestalozzi and Rous-
seau, and likewise many points of resemblance between
Pestalozzi and Froebel; but the points wherein Pestalozzi
agrees with Froebel are precisely those wherein he differs
from Rousseau. Between the views of Rousseau and those
of Froebel there are, in my judgment, no affinities whatso-
ever." She adds further, in discussing "Development":
" The application of the idea of development to education
has been in a large measure the work of Pestalozzi and
Froebel. To the former we owe the ideal of education as
the harmonious development of inherent powers; to the
latter must be accorded the honor of having first clearly
perceived the manifold implications of this ideal." Every
student who desires to secure a relative valuation of the
words and works of these three men can do no better than
read "Symbolic Education."
696 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
A CERTAIN stage of youth is marked by a voracious ap-
petite for historical romance. It is that stage from which
childish fancy with all its enhancing powers is receding, to
make way for the romance and fiction of real life. There
is a zest and fervor, a delight and heroic passion in this
season which bind fact and fiction, storm, struggle, and
triumphs, into a fascinating world known only to its partic-
ular youthful progenitor. Something of this same flavor,
but to an intensified degree, arose recently from our read-
ing of the life and works of Henry Pestalozzi. The honest
struggles of a man who could conceive a rational recon-
struction of the social order, fired us with admiration and
new impulses. The volume of his life and works, translated
from the French of De Guimps, is a thrilling book. It
should be a "daily strength in daily need" to every kinder-
gartner, parent, teacher. The former should read it in
large draughts, and by no means lose sight of Pestalozzi the
man, the father, the citizen, in their efforts to assimilate his
pedagogy. When the book is finished we involuntarily
withdraw our preconceived estimate of Pestalozzi as a man
who sacrificed his life and family to a stubborn cause, and
recognize him as one who dedicated his whole self to his
honest convictions.
In studying the work of Pestalozzi we are impressed with
his reverence for and profound faith in the human family, —
the holy family. The importance which he laid upon this
pivotal relationship is more clearly revealed in the para-
graphs quoted .from his papers in the Practice Department
of this number. In an allegorical soliloquy he once de-
scribed himself, as well as a certain stage in the experience
of every devout reformer, as follows:
"I, however, know a man who was not thus contented.
The innocence of childhood was his delight, his faith in
men was such as is shared by few mortals, his heart was
fashioned for friendship, his nature was love itself, constancy
his chief joy. But as he was not made by the world, the
world had no place for him, and finding him thus, without
even asking whether the fault was his or another's, crushed
EDITORIAL NOTES. 69/
him with its iron hammer as the mason crushes a useless
stone. But though crushed, he still cared more for human-
ity than he did for himself, and set to work on a task from
which, amid cruel sorrows, he learned things that few
mortals know. Then he looked for justice from those whom
in his retirement he still loved; but he was disappointed, for
he was judged by men who had not even listened to him,
and persistently declared him to be fit for nothing. This
was the grain of sand that turned the balance of his fate,
and was his ruin. He is now no more, and a few confused
traces are all that remain of his broken existence. He has
fallen, as the green fruit falls from the tree when the cold
north wind has smitten its blossom, or the cankerworm
gnawed its heart. And as he fell, he leaned his head against
the trunk, and murmured: 'Yet would I still nourish thy
roots with my dust.' Passer-by, give a tear to his memory,
and leave this fallen, rotting fruit to strengthen the tree in
whose branches it passed its short-lived summer."
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's "MUTTER UND KOSE-LIEDER."
No. IX.
View-points from tlie ivritings of Pcstaloszi. — The following
paragraphs have been selected from the various writings of
Pestalozzi by Frau Henrietta Schrader, and arranged by
her, with additions from her own pen, to illustrate the basis
and procedure of Froebel's "Mother-Play Book." On page
214 of the new commentary on this book, "Symbolic Edu-
cation," Miss Blow makes the following statement of F'rau
Scljrader's practical demonstrations:
"Of all living kindergartners, probably the one who uses
the Mother-Play to the greatest advantage is Frau Henriette
Schrader, of Berlin. The great-niece of Froebel, a member
of his last class for young women at Blankenberg, and the
recipient of many of his most valuable and suggestive let-
ters, she is deeply imbued with his spirit, and is quite gen-
erally recognized as the head of the kindergarten movement
in North Germany."
This statement.^is followed by a detailed description of
the work of Frau Schrader as practically carried forward in
the Pestalozzi-Froebel House, and which is reprinted from
Barnard's "Kindergarten and Child Culture Papers"; hence
we attach value to the statements below, an understanding
of which Frau Schrader has considered essential to the true
estimate of the "Mother-Play Book."
The following paragraphs then are translated direct
from Pestalozzi and P>au Schrader, the former being in-
closed in quotation marks:
Pestalozzi holds that one central, radiating principle is essential to
all elementary or fundamental education.
"This great central point is the strength and warmth of personal
relationship."
Pestalozzi holds the /u:;«z/)/ as the central unit in the social world;
the innermost relationship in the family is that which exists between
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 699
mother and child; this inmost relationship is the prototype to the kin-
dergartner and her charges.
" Mother love, as it cares daily for the child, awakens incentives and
promptings, from the simplest to the most complex, including a con-
sciousness of the various objects and activities contingent upon that
daily nurture."
"Nurturing love provides the child with all the essentials of air,
light, and warmth; it transforms the fleece of sheep into a protecting
garment, and the growing flax into snowy linen."
"Thus is the child nurtured. In his presence, before his wondering
eyes, which daily widen to the world, the mother delves and serves and
busies herself."
The unfolding child nature would fain join in this care and service;
he stretches out his arms, he thrusts his limbs about, and tests his
strength. The mother is the bridge, as it were, in his experience be-
tween being served and sharing in the service — between taking and
giving. At this point she plays with him.
Her play is a glad participation in his growth impetus; she joins in
with his little effort; what he faintly stammers she brings, through her
cooperation, into full expression.
"The child does not test the strength of his hand merely to exercise
it, but primarily to prepare it for ready action in the daily uses of life."
" He develops and strengthens his hand because he accomplishes
with it; he does not work with his hand that he may make it strong."
So the veritable, natural mother attaches the physical play of her
chilci to some life circumstance and incident. She does not play con-
sciously or systeinatically, in view of strengthening his physique. This
latter were far too taxing for a child.
"But actual life is rich in opportunity and infinitely varied in its
experiences."
The unfoldment of the childish nature is furthered on one hand by
the actualities of daily life, on the other by means of art, — song, story,
pictures, etc.
Play is the blending of actual life with the beginnings of art. Child's
play, pure and simple, especially that of earliest childhood, should not
be organized from without; it organizes itself, when the conditions are
normal ; and these mitst be secured to the child.
After the play impulse, the work impulse develops in the child.
The younger the child the more intimately are the two bound to-
gether.
" Little by little the child by his own impulse shares in the care of
himself, and at once begins to do for father and mother in the things
they need, prompted by his own self-activity. His now awakened
affection becomes the motive power for every practical deed and serv-
ice, and this activity in turn satisfies the demands of his affection, in
whatsoever life relationship he finds himself."
700 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
" Thus in the family life, work and affection, obedience and effort,
gratitude and industry are blended together, and by means of their re-
actionary influences upon each other, they become developed, positive,
and strong."
Thus the whole family life and domestic economy must be pressed
into the service of education. It is even as important that work, even
the work of very young children, should be organized, as it is important
that child's play should not be externally organized.
In the above paragraphs we find a clear statement of the
successive impulses or responses of child nature. What mo-
tives child's play, according to the above? Is activity ever
divorced from motive? Is activity ever aimless, even in a
tiny babe? Why did Pestalozzi, Froebel, and many of their
individual follawers, reiterate upon repeated conviction,
that the family activities and varied domestic life were the
sources and means of true education? What is meant by
true relationships? Can these exist on other than a basis
of mutual rendering of service?
If a young mother be ignorant of the scientific, hygienic
care of her child, may she still provide proper air, light, etc.?
What prompts the original knowledge of such care?
What form of activity is first brought to the child's con-
sciousness,7-that of work, labor, or service? Is mother's
work for the child mechanical or illuminated? When the
child awkwardly plays at combing mother's hair, or wash-
ing himself, is it mere imitation, or is it an effort at cooper-
ation?
Does mother love always interpret these early impulses?
Should it? Does the study of the "Mother-Play Book"
help us to know and interpret early human impulses and
efforts ?
Are kindergarten games always the outgrowth of a nat-
ural impulse? Should systematic physical culture take the
place, to any degree, of the spontaneous work effort, which
is true play? Is the human physique strengthened or
drained when working under a self- generated impulse?
Should work be separated from creative joy?
Make a list of the various trades, occupations, and works
which are included in a mother's home work for her family.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. /OI
Is the family life more, or less, circumscribed than the
school? Is there more, or less, opportunity for culture and
education in a moderate home than in an extensive estab-
lishment? Is human contact a human necessity? What
are the normal conditions and normal environment of child-
hood? Is the kindergarten an. end, or a transitional means
to the return of true family life?
These additional statements are gleaned from the "Life
and Works of Henry Pestalozzi":
The pure sentiments of truth and wisdom are formed in the narrow
circle of our personal relations, the circumstances which suggest our
actions, and the powers we need to develop.
All the pure and beneficent powers of humanity are neither the
products of art nor the results of chance. They are really a natural
possession of every man. Their development is a universal hum*an
need.
The child at its mother's breast is already receiving the first moral
impressions of love and gratitude.
Thought deals with the dynamic element of experience, rather than
with mere things, which are only static results.
— A ma lie Hofcr.
THE OBJECT, AIM, AND INSTRUMENTS OF THE KINDERGARTEN.
Hozv Some of its Features may be Utilised in Primary TeacJi-
iiig. — It was only after years of thought, study, and careful
practice with children that the genius of Froebel provided
us with a system which he based upon the first steps of the
child's development, which has proved to be typical of all
succeeding stages of development.
A thorough grasp of these principles means a thorough
grasp upon all the principles of development through edu-
cation, and "Education, to be worthy of a human being,"
says Froebel, "must be continuous, must proceed upon the
same plan from the beginning through a progressive se-
quence, according to the natural stages of development."
The objects of the kindergarten may best be stated in Froe-
bel's own words: "To take the oversight of children before
they are ready for school life; to exert an influence over
their whole being in correspondence with nature; to
strengthen their bodily powers; to exercise their senses;
702 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
to employ the awakening mind; to make them thoroughly
acquainted with the world of nature and of man; to guide
their heart and soul in a right direction; and to lead them
to the Origin of all life, and to union with him."
Froebel chose, as a means to an end in attaining his
objects in true training, a series of gifts and occupations
which fully cover the circle of human activities. The gifts,
such as the soft balls of different, colors, cubes, spheres, cyl-
inders, the different prisms, squares, and the various trian-
gles, are the materials which aid in carrying out the "sub-
ject" work the kindergartner has chosen for the week,
month, or season. By handling, dividing, and reconstruct-
ing, the child really acquires a vast deal of knowledge, and
gains that which will be of value to him in the studies of
arithmetic, mensuration, geometry, and architectural and
industrial drawing.
All this the child learns by doing, and this extensive
knowledge of form is applied immediately in the various
occupations, such as inat weaving, sewing, cutting, pasting,
paper folding, stick work, pease work, modeling, and draw-
ing.
Through these means the child becomes interested in
all the objects of nature and art with which he daily comes
in contact. By degrees the child receives a practical
insight into the relationship of parts to wholes, is taught
the harmony of form and color, as weU as symmetrical
arrangement. All this leads to originality in designing,
and cannot fail to produce great and lasting benefits, men-
tally and morally.
In every one of the gifts and occupations ample provi-
sion is made for the training of the hand and the skillful
manipulation of the fingers, which is so necessary in most of
the industrial pursuits of life. Boys have given scarcely
any attention to the development of hand skill, except that
acquired in writing. This of course prevents their reaching
the highest possibilities in skilled labor.
Germany, Switzerland, and France felt this need, and
established technical schools for the training of the hand in
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 703
connection with some of the industrial pursuits. As a
result, in a few years England found that to hold her place
in the manufacturing line she also was obliged to establish
these schools. This defect has led some of our thoughtful
men to propose having workshops in connection with our
public schools. In a measure the kindergarten aims to sup-
ply this need; not alone in the training <?/the hand, for that
may imply action and even skill without conscious thought.
Such a training is purely mechanical, and would not pro-
mote the all-sided development of the child, and could not
be called an educational training. But the training by the
hand, which the kindergarten emphasizes, requires that
every movement made shall be with the help of the mind;
that the brain shall direct the movement of the hand, thus
forming a union of mental and manual activities.
Physical culture is one of the important results of kin-
dergarten training. "In the whole of nature nothing devel-
ops without activity." "To be strong, we must be active."
Through the games and plays, physical benefits come
incidentally to the child. The various occupations of sim-
ple life, the activities in plant and animal life, which lead
the child to observe natural phenomena, are symbolized.
A child rejoices in seeing the life and movement around
him. He takes delight in being a horse, a bird, or grass
which the action of the wind sways back and forth. Through
all this comes a spiritual truth which unconsciously leads
the child to trace all life to its original source, making the
vision of God possible,
Children love nature, and countless are the questions
they ask about it, — the name of this plant, tree, or bird,
what use it has, etc. The kindergarten does not answer the
queries of the young mind carelessly, as so many ignorant
and busy parents do, but gives accurate information. Its
games are all modeled on the real acts of birds and other
creatures, and so the child soon grasps and makes his own
some of the real knowledge of science. No dulling of the
intellect here, by saying: "Go away; you ask too many
questions." Nor is the child stuffed with false ideas.
704 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
The kindergarten aims to inspire love, not fear or hate.
Its little boys, instead of throwing stones at birds or cats,
will take their part, and feed and protect them.
In showing the uses of things and individuals, it devel-
ops a sense of responsibility, and glad, loving obedience to
authority. The little birds must live at peace in their nest,
and obey and love the mother and father birds that keep
them warm and feed them.
Without a close and extended examination of a true
kindergarten, it is almost impossible to realize how children
can be placed in such a variety of circumstances through
games and plays, as to develop incidentally, without their
being conscious of it, all the better portions of their nature.
Froebel did not intend that this natural method of
instruction should end at the kindergarten, or at the pri-
mar}' school, but that its principles should be applied
through all the grades. And it is so applied, consciously or
unconsciously, by good teachers everywhere.
The primary teacher, if she has made a study of Froe-
bel's method, and understands the underlying principles of
his materials, will be able to give her children many pleas-
ant and profitable lessons that afford striking perceptions
of form, size, number, relation, direction, and position.
Especially is this true of the building gifts, which meet the
investigative and creative nature, and emphasize number,
which is the corner stone of all Froebel's gifts and occupa-
tions.
A gift that was used with a child four or five years of
age, to meet the investigative, creative, and constructive
powers, may be used when he is two years older. He is
delighted when lessons in square and cubic measure are
given, such as laying floors, sidewalks, inclosing corn bins,
etc. By connecting these lessons with a child's play and
work, they are given a living interest, and their utility and
necessity become a part of his very being, instead of seem-
ing like dry abstractions.
Through these gifts, incidentally, a child may become
familiar with fractional parts, — as fourths, thirds, ninths,
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. /OS
and twenty-sevenths. Some of the occupations may be
used to advantage in the primary school. Clay modeling
seems one of the best. It increases the child's self-activity,
cultivates observation and perception, gives him a knowl-
edge of form, size, and proportion. Clay modeling forms
an excellent basis for the study of geography and mathe-
matics. A clear idea of dimension, which is so essential in
these branches, ig gained through forming and making.
The imagination is cultivated to a wonderful extent, —
just what most of our children need, in order to keep them
from becoming machines. Clay is a very cheap material,
and can be used to illustrate almost every nature study.
Geometrical paper folding may be used to advantage; it
teaches the child to be accurate and careful.
He learns that dirt is matter out of place; that it spoils
his paper foldings. Thus habits of cleanliness. and system
are established, which become the law of life.
When the average primary teacher, who has not made
this work a study, puts into her school, bodily, Froebel's
gifts, occupations, games, and songs, it is like putting car-
penter's tools into the hands of one who has no idea of
their use. "Graduated from a genuine kindergarten, a
child rejoices in an individual self-poise and power which
makes his own skill and judgment important factors of his
future progress. He is not like every other child who has
been in his class; he is himself. His own genius, whatever
it may be, finds room for growth, and is encouraged to
express itself." Thus the kindergarten, while it does not
claim to impart complete instruction in the rudiments of
any particular science, or branch of learning, does claim to
take the untrained, even uncivilized children, from all sorts
of homes and early influences, and start them aright on the
highroad to knowledge and civilization.
A mind thus systematically trained wiil be a good wit-
ness in court, a good general in the field, a good astronomer
in the observatory, a sincere lover of accuracy and truth,
and therefore a good citizen. — Aurie E. Bloss, Sheboyga?i, Wis.
706 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
LEARNING TO READ THOUGHTS, NOT WORDS.
The following is taken from an account by Miss Sara
Jenkins of a reading lesson conducted in a kindergarten
normal school in Switzerland. We reprint from Primary
Education, a young journal, but one with a substantial reason
for its existence. There is an excellent flavor to its con-
tents, which should be credited to its editor, Mrs. Eva
Kellogg:
"The study of symbols, when rightly conducted, opens
the way to the higher operations of the 'spirit at a much
earlier period than has been thought possible. The inter-
est, importance, and beauty of this work was made manifest
by a lesson seen in the Froebel Kindergarten College at
Neuchatel one year ago, the point of the lesson being, to
the casual observer, to teach the script forms of the words
enfant, chanson, mechantc. The lesson was conducted before
a kindergarten class in training. A group of children of six
years and under, gathered informally about a gentle, sweet-
faced teacher, not young, and lame. Love, respect, and en-
thusiasm were written upon every little upturned face during
the few moments given to the introductory conversation.
" The teacher then turned to the blackboard, and sen-
tence after sentence, all bearing upon the previous conversa-
tion, was placed upon the board. The thought was found
in each case and given with the impulse, tone, and emphasis
that flows from perfect apprehension of the whole. The
play of thought upon these words and others related to
them was music, poetry, eloquence, and ethics combined.
The perfect accent, the eloquence used in discussion as to
whether ' T etifant mechante' could sing a good song, the play
of physical expression intensified by the French nature, the
attitudes taken by the children, would put to flight the most
capable exponent of Delsarte.
" It surely was a reading lesson, if reading means changes
wrought in consciousness. The teacher was simply direct-
ress; all reading, all expression, was the child's. Right or
wrong, it was the impression made by these symbols on the
mind of the little reader. The eye of the child would flash
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 707
along the sentence as it grew on the blackboard under the
hand of the teacher, who, having the pen of a ready writer,
literally and spirituallj'-, often half concealed in the sentence
some bright thought. Not infrequently a ripple of merri-
ment, as the conception dawned on the child's mind, re-
warded her delighted heart. The lesson ended all too soon
for the children and for me.
"I felt I had seen an artist teaching children the true
function of words. I had seen children, almost babies, no-
tice, observe, think, and ask themselves not what the words
zvere, but what the words said. The school building in
which the lesson was given, was erected upon ground that
had once been a favorite trysting place of Froebel and Pes-
talozzi, a sort of Campo Santo, and I wondered whether the
shades of these rare souls might not be lingering lovingly
near. All the mental acts, exercised naturally by these
children, were those attempted by would-be^ delineators of
the utterances of masters.
"Children make use of these daily in endless combina-
tions, in play and sport; and they afford associations more
pleasing, and emotions more satisfying, than any which
reality can afford or awaken. The giving definite expres-
sion to ideas and mental images; the rendering of the inner,
outer, is the truest application of self-activity. In the kin-
dergarten it is the very lifeblood of the songs, and the liv-
ing principle of the occupations. This principle must be
taken as the cue to success. That to which a child gives
real expression must be inwardly seen; all else is imita-
tion. Train pupils, then, not to imitate, but to feel, to see,
where the light falls, — to look for the shadow. Teachers
of drawing pride themselves upon the training to see and
to feel values in black and white; shall we do less in train-
ing children to feel values in thought?"
THE GOBLINS IN STARLAND.
One lovely morning in May, when the goblins had been
amusing themselves playing with the flowers in Flowerland,
one little goblin was heard to sigh — so wearily! All the
708 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
other goblins looked up in surprise, and asked him what
was the matter. He complained that he was tired of the
flowers on earth, and that he wanted to see the flowers in
the sky.
"Flowers in the sky!" exclaimed all the little goblins in
chorus; "why, whoever heard of flowers in the sky?"
"Wait till I tell you about them," said the weary little
goblin who had sighed; "for I heard about them, and saw
some of them, when I went on a trip to Mars."
It appears that this little goblin was one of the merry
crowd who visited Mars and Venus. He longed to take a
trip to the sky again. Besides, some one had told him that
ever so many little planets traveled between Mars and the
giant planet Jupiter, and our goblin had only had a glimpse
of them when he visited Mars. He had been told that
many of these planets were very small, and that if they were
all rolled into one, they would not make a planet half as
large as our earth. These planets are not only small, but
of differ.ent colors, just like the colored flowers on earth.
"Are there any little planets which are red?" asked one
of the goblins.
"Yes, indeed," replied the goblin who had been to Star-
land; "and some are blue, and green, and yellow; but we
are so far away from them that we can scarcely see these
colors, even with a telescope."
"I would like to live on one of those little planets,"
said one little goblin, who was balancing himself on a blade
of grass; "but how small are the smallest planets?- If there
are ever so many, we might have a planet all to ourselves."
"Some of the planets are only ten and twenty miles
across, while others are more than a hundred miles wide.
If you lived on an asteroid near the sun, the year would last
nearly as long as three years on our earth, and if you lived
on Thule, the asteroid which is at the greatest distance from
the sun, the year would last nearly as long as nine years on
our earth."
"What are the names of these little planets, and how
many are there?" asked another goblin.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. /OQ
"There are about three hundred asteroids, which have
been seen by astronomers; but there may be hundreds they
cannot see until they make more powerful telescopes. The
names of the asteroids are very pretty. Here are some of
them: Vesta, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, which were discovered
first."
That evening when the sun had sunk to rest, and all the
stars began to shine, the little goblins clambered onto a ray
of starlight and went up to Starland to examine these aster-
oids for themselves. Next time I shall tellyou some of the
wonderful things they saw on their trip. — Mary Proctor.
HOW TO ASSUME INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Every person interested in the benefit of practical educa-
tion should own one or more books which expound the
same, and loan these among friendly parties.
Every kindergartner can legitimately interest one addi-
tional person in her work each week. Every sound edu-
cator can correct one mistaken fellow teacher, and bring
him to a juster estimate of educational principles.
Every intelligent teacher can set some one misinformed
parent or school-committee man right; can straighten out a
biased judgment by candid discussion.
Every mother who 'knows of the enlightenment of the
kindergarten, can convince another parent of its rationality.
Every kindergartner can select some one city or country
teacher with whom to share her insight and enthusiasm.
Everyone may overcome one point of ignorance in him-
self each day. If a question is asked which he cannot an-
swer, let him at once make himself intelligent on that par-
ticular point.
THE TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM.
VI.
TRANSITION — ANOTHER PHASE OF THE THEORY OF MENTAL EFFECT.
The subject of the scale as heretofore considered has by
no means been exhausted, and that the subject now to be
discussed may be more fully appreciated, we will consider
710 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
other salient points relating to the structure of the scale.
Attention has been directed to the importance of the lit-
tle steps of the scale; let me now observe them more closely.
Occurring between the third and fourth and the seventh and
eighth intervals, they cause the tonic or d to occupy a posi-
tion which differs from that occupied by any other tone of
the scale, — one coming below it and the other occurring at
an interval of a major third above it. We find between the
first little step {m,f) and the second (/, d^) an interval of
three larger steps, — two greater {f, s, and /, /) and one
smaller {s, /), which likewise is found nowhere else in the
scale. This interval (/ /), called the "tritone," is consid-
ered anti-melodic. Applying to the "tritone" the theory of
mental effect, we feel that the reason for its being anti-
melodic is the contrast in its two principal tones, / and t.
Te has been designated the leading tone because of its
strong tendency toward the key tone; so also mdiy fall be
termed a leading tone, though its tendency is downward to
the third of the scale. In all respects we find its character-
istics to be opposite to those of te. These two tones are the
distinguishing tones of the scale. Summing up all that has
thus far been said upon this subject, we will add that this
particular structure of the scale causes the mental effects of
the tones composing it.
In the course of many tunes it is found that the key tone
{d) first used does not remain the governing tone through-
out, but that some other tone is chosen for a time as a tonic,
around which its former companions group themselves in a
similar relation to that which they formerly occupied to-
ward the first key tone; we say the music has passed into
another key. This process is called "transition," and is that
which in many tunes forms their chief beauty, and which,
because of the pleasant and satisfactory effect upon the ear
and mind, stands out most prominently from among the
many other things which appeal to the musical sensibilities.
In the familiar patriotic song, "Red, White, and Blue,"
the music makes a transition at the third line; this continues
through the fourth line, then returns to the former key. If
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 7II
we attempt to sing these two lines of the tune from the
modulator thus far used, we find ourselves at a loss, because
the necessary tones do not appeal to us as before, and we
discover that we require a tone different from any we find
on the modulator. The fact is, that the tones have changed
m^ their mental effects, although the pitch re-
r^ mains the same. We soon appreciate that the
, . ^ tone which now must be regarded as d is the
te old s, and that the required tone should occur
between / and s, the ear preferring to hear at
this place a sharp tone instead of / which is
the flat tone of the scale. As the distance be-
tween d and / is a little step, the old / must be
displaced by the new /, to make the required
little step between these two tones (/and.?).
This change will necessitate a corresponding
] change in the mental effects of the other tones,
« as follows:
=1
r^ — s grave — bright
lah
soh
fah
me
ray
doh
t,
dohi-f
firm— stern
te— m
keen— calm
lah-r
sad — grave
soh— d
bright — firm
fe — t , keen
fah// stern/''
me — 1 calm — sad
ray — s grave — bright
doh— f
tj — m
Si-d
The change oi f to fe (to correspond with / in the new
key), which is a sharp tone, makes the transition a sharp
transition; and as but one tone is required to be changed,
the new key is called the first sharp key, and the effect pro-
duced is brightening because of the distinguishing tone /.
712 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
As every piece of music should end in the first or prin-
cipal key, we find this one no exception to the rule. It re-
turns after the fourth line, but the process employed to
bring about the result is a reversal of that before used; i. e.,
the new t is displaced and the old /is restored. The music
returns to its first home, and the ear is satisfied.
We will take for our next example the familiar lullaby
of "The Old Homestead." In our attempt to sing the sec-
ond strain of this tune from our old modulator, we find as
before that we require a new tone which we discover should
occur between the tones / and t, where we feel that the little
step should come instead of the greater step, — in short, that
a flat tone is here necessary instead of a sharp tone. The
distinguishing tone in this instance being a flat tone, the
transition is to a flat key; and as before but one tone is al-
tered, the key is that of the first flat and the d will be the
old / The effect now produced is depressing or gloomy,
because of the distinguishing tone. The tone correspond-
ing to this new tone in the old key will be ta (pronounced
taiv), as follows:
The mental effect of each tone will
again change with the key. The music
returns to the first or principal key in the
next strain; the new tone (/) is displaced,
and the old tone (/) is restored.
From the above it will be perceived
that when a sharp transition is made, the
return to the principal key is really a flat
transition, and that when a flat transition
is made from the principal key, the return
is really a sharp transition.
If we have for the principal key that of
scale, the key into which the first sharp
transition is made is G ; because the scale founded on the
fifth above C ( G) is the one which requires the alteration of
but one tone to make a sharp transition, and the key which
has for a tonic the fifth below, or the fourth above C, is F,
and requires the changing of but one tone to produce a flat
dl
-fi
t
1
—ml
— ri
s
— dohi
te
f
~ta
m
— lah
r
— soh
d
-fah
— me
— ray
Si
^doh
c, th
e ;
standard
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 713
transition. But from any key first-sharp and first-flat transi-
tions may be made.
Transitions are of three kinds, according to the place
they occupy in a tune, and also as to duration. A transition
which occurs at the end of a line, or in a cadence, is called
a "cadence transition"; if the transition continues beyond
the cadence, or through several measures, it is called " ex-
tended"; and if it occurs in the middle of a line and through
only a few pulses, it Is termed "passing." Extended transi-
tions are either sharp or flat; cadence transitions are gen-
erally sharp, and passing transitions are generally flat.
As transition is caused by a change in the mental effects
of tones, when it is extended it is more convenient to alter
the names of the notes to suit the new key; and this is done
by using a double note for the tone on which the transition
is felt to occur, thus showing at a glance the name of the
tone in the old key and that which it assumes in the new,
the latter being printed in large type and the former in
small type. This is called a "bridge note," and is written
thus: ^d, V, etc., and pronounced s'doh, Vray. In cadence
and in passing transitions the tone name is altered; as,
fe, ta.
The first manner of noting transition is called the " per-
fect" method, and the second the "imperfect" method. To
show that a transition has been made, and its nature, the
name of the key is written and the distinguishing tone is
placed beside it, the sharp key to the right, the flat key to
the left; as, G. t., A. t., f. F., f. C. The above are called
transitions of one remove. If a transition is made to a more
distant key, as many distinguishing tones are written beside
the name of the key as are necessary to indicate the re-
move; as, A. t. m. 1., a third-sharp transition, and d. f. B-flat,
a second-flat remove or transition. The following diagram
will show a principal key and several sharp and flat keys,
showing in all seven keys. This is not the extended modu-
lator, which contains more removes, but the one which is
used in the intermediate stage of the work.
714
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
d,
ts.,
DOH'
son
ME
t
1,
f,
Je, ^
— Ejnma A. Lord, Brooklyn, N. V.
THE DANDELION. — A NATURE STUDY.
The dandelion (Fr. de7it-de-lio}i) is so called from the
resemblance of the teeth of the leaf to a lion's tooth.
Have you ever studied the dandelion from the first ap-
pearance of the bud until the seed, like a fairy, may be seen
floating against the sun?
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. /I 5
Notice how the dandelion raises its head when the flow-
ers open, opens and shuts morning and evening, then lies
down against the earth as it ripens its seeds, and then raises
itself a second time that the wind may easily reach the seed.
I remember nothing that gave me so much delight in
my childhood as to watch the "summer snowflakes," as I
called them, going up to the sun, dancing a much wilder
dance than the winter flakes ever did when coming down
from the sun. I wondered what the sun did to make them
change to snow, and how so many could find room to stay
there so long.
I remember well starting off a whole handful and clap-
ping^ my hands with glee when I saw them touching the
windows of the sun, modestly asking admittance.
Did you ever count the individuals in one of those colo-
nies? There are from 150 to 250 in each head.
Let us pass in through the little green fence surround-
ing this family. Note the number of rows of green pickets;
the position of the inner and outer rows in the bud; see
how each individual has a tiny thimble -like spot for its
bed; how the calyx or cup did not have space to grow be-
cause so crowded by its neighbors, and thus what we would
call a misfortune is an aid in the future, in its ascent, the
means of giving it a start in life.
Notice how erect the dandelion stands while in bloom;
also its hollow scape; and do not fail to curl it, making
ringlets rivaling those on bab)''s head.
After blooming, the inner involucre closes, the beak elon-
gates and raises up its pappus while the fruit is forming; at
this time they prostrate themselves as if they would com-
pel Mother Earth to yield unto them her strength. They
then raise themselves again, and the whole involucre throws
itself back, exposing to the wind the naked fruit, crowned
with its long beak, with flowing robes ready to caress those
who love them, or moving off in their light dance seeking a
new home, where they will give some other creature a golden
outlook.
No child who has been taugrht to love this flower can
7l6 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
ever be dull. The nature spirit of it ever whispers to us to
be content. Its golden rays are a fortune in themselves. I
could spare any flower better than the dandelion. The
sweetest of all things to me is the air that has passed over
a field of them. I can never step on them, because of the
reproach that follows. It is the only flower where I find
warmth and tenderness combined.
Oh, that you might see all the joy there is in one of
those golden beauties! Are you not ever passing them by,
and saying, by your actions, "Only a dandelion"? — Mrs.
S. 0. Spencer, Clevelajid, 0.
PESTALOZZIAN METHODS IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA.
The following bit of history concerning Pestalozzi and
the advance of his thought is reprinted from an introduc-
tion written by C. W. Bardeen, of Syracuse, to a little vol-
ume of "Lessons on Form," which treats of Pestalozzian
methods:
" Pestalozzi's methods of teaching were introduced into
England mainly by Dr. and Miss Mayo, who in 1836 joined
with John Lurckey Reynolds in the formation of the Home
and Colonial School Society. Before this they had estab-
lished at Cheam, Surrey, a Pestalozzian school, which soon
gained a wide reputation. Here a series of books were pub-
lished, which were regarded as the first English exponents
of the Pestalozzian system of teaching. When Dr. Sheldon
introduced the Pestalozzian system at Oswego, he prepared
American editions of two of these books, — the "Object
Lessons," and the "Elementary Instruction," which have
been among the most successful and useful of books on
pedagogy. Calls have become so frequent for other books
of this series, that it seems ^^orth while to issue small edi-
tions of two of them, — those on " Number" and on " Form."
They appear as originally issued, without the change of a
paragraph. As few modern teachers have opportunity to
see the original books which Pestalozzi issued (Pestalozzi's
Elemejitar Bucher), a word of description m-ay not be out
of place. His Aiiscliaimngslehre der ZaJdenverhaltidsse was
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. /I/
published in three parts, at Zurich, in 1 803-4. The three
volumes contain, respectively, 199, 261, and 287 pages. The
preface to the first volume is unsigned*; those to the second
and third are signed, respectively, Burgdorf, in Heumonat,
1803, Pestalozzi; Burgdorf, den i Marz, 1804, Pestalozzi.
An interesting exposition and defense of Pestalozzi's system
will be found in the preface of Hoose's Pestalozzian Arith-
metics, in which this method is made available for modern
schools."
OLD DANISH RHYMES.
Dance, dance, dolly mine —
Shirt of silk with bosom fine;
Little shoes with buckles bright;
Now we are dancing with all our might! .
Ride, ride, so long a ride!
Our horse is fine, for she is white;
Our colt is brown with a curly mane —
Now we are coming home again!
Sleep, sleep, my little bairn;
Mother is winding snow-white yarn;
Father is walking across the street,
Buying new shoes for baby's feet —
Shoes with buckles and shining top;
Put them on baby when she wakes up.
Sleep, sleep, my baby sweet,
Father is coming across the street.
— Nico Bech-Meyer.
QUIET SONG FOR THE HANDS.
(Sung to " Carol, oh, carol," etc.)
Softly, now softly, hands are so still!
They have been working with right good will;
Now they are resting; now they are still.
— V.B.J.
7l8 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
A LETTER FROM VANXOUVER, B. C.
The following extract from a letter will carry many sug-
gestions to our readers:
At my suggestion a number of the public school teachers
interested in our work have formed a club to meet once in
two weeks to study child nature. We had our first meeting
last evening, and spent a very pleasant and profitable even-
ing. I read a paper on "The Kindergarten," which was
followed by a lively discussion of the different points taken
up. The subject chosen for our next meeting was "Imagi-
nation."
At the request of these teachers I agreed to hold a spe-
cial session of the kindergarten some Saturday morning, to
enable them to see something of the work. I am only too
glad to seize every opportunit}' to spread the good news,
and want to be a true disciple of Froebel; so although I
often feel very weak and ignorant, I try to do my best. I
hope some time in the near future some experienced kin-
dergartncr will take a trip out this way and treat us to some
lectures.
We are greatly in need of kindergarten literature to dis-
tribute— or rather to circulate — among the people, — inter-
esting, plainly written books and pamphlets such as the
average parent will read. There is a grand field for such
work here. A curiosity is being aroused which I feel it is
our duty to satisfy. As I suppose is the case in all new
towns, the majority of the people are struggling to make a
living, and even the few who really value books are not able
to indulge in many new ones.
Only those who have been in a similar position can real-
ize how hungry one feels as she reads over the descriptions
of new books, the accounts of lectures, etc., which her
more fortunate sisters are enjoying. Should you feel in-
clined to help in this matter, I can assure you the books
will be most gratefully received by me and kept in circula-
tion among parents and teachers whom we are striving to
reach.
The Kindergarten Magazine is eagerly devoured each
month, and always arouses in me a desire to do better, truer
work. It is such a comfort to feel that others are 'experi-
encing the same difficulties and the same pleasures. I am
enjoying the papers on "Mutter und Kose-Lieder" very
much; it is such an excellent way to review it! I sit down
with pencil and paper and study out the questions.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. Jig
I would like to hear some discussion of the first question
on page 549 of the March Kindergarten Magazine. I use
the balls to help the children gain clear ideas of color, hav-
ing red birds, yellow flowers, etc.
My little ones are intensely interested in making a cal-
endar each month, and eagerly count up the sunshiny days
we've had. They greatly enjoyed the February song, and
the last day asked to sing it the last thing before they went
home. One little girl remarked: "I'm going to play little
February all afternoon." The first thing they do in a new
month is to see what color the new calendar is; I use card-
board of the color I want to emphasize for the month. Not
having a verse for March in my collection, I was obliged to
write one. As I had never composed a verse in my life,
you can imagine it was rather crude; however, it pleased
the children. The trade songs have claimed most of our
attention during the past two months, the "interdependence
of all men" being the thought I had in mind all through. I
have planned an exercise emphasizing the work of farmer,
miller, baker, carpenter, and cooper, in which all the chil-
dren can take part, for next week, using Second Gift, First
Gift, sticks, lentils, and beads, which I think they will
greatly enjoy.
I have not been able to get any clay since I came here,
there being no pottery anywhere in the country so far as I
can find out. Is there anything else which will take its
place? — C. N.
[Wax or dough may be used as a substitute for clay. — Ed.]
the roller. — FREE PLAY.
The roller is so heavy, we must pull it with a will
To smooth the ground so rough and brown; let none of us
sit still.
From front to back, from left to righr, how smooth the
earth now grows!
See, it is ready for the seed, and water from the hose.
The grass seed now we'll scatter round, then water it with
care.
Soon we will see the bright green blades grow up into the
air.
— /. A. K., Worcester, Mass.
720 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The following set of subjects were put before the Sloyd
Training School of Boston, for essay writing at the close of
the year's work:
1. The nature of the child must guide the teacher.
What opportunities does the teacher of sloyd have for carry-
ing out this principle?
2. Industrial manual training versus school manual train-
ing, as exemplified by sloyd.
3. Hand and brain as counterparts and supplementary
to each other.
4. Training the sense of completeness, by means of
sloyd.
5. Does sloyd train pupils to imitate, rather than origi-
nate or invent?
6. Subject to be chosen by student and submitted to Mr.
Larsson.
7. The significance of the "useful model."
8. The value of knife exercises.
The June Kindergarten Magazine will be a jubilee
number, containing such articles and reports as may be
used for campaign literature. Colonel Francis Parker will
give us a chapter of his practical demonstrations of Froebel-
lian principles. Miss Jane Addams of Hull House will dis-
cuss the kindergarten as a factor in social reform. Mr.
James L. Hughes, of Toronto, in an eminently forceful argu-
ment will present the Relation of the Kindergarten to the
Public School System. The magazine will appear in a new
cover, and will bring a wealth of suggestions for summer
work, as well as a full announcement of the coming year's
volume. Every subscriber should secure one or more
extra copies of the jubilee number, to distribute as favors
to his or her friends. The frontispiece will be a choice
picture of an entire kindergarten out of doors, playing the
game of the "Bird in the nest." The June number will be
a good traveling or vacation companion for both friends
and strangers to the cause.
MOTHERS' DEPARTMENT.
TO PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, NURSES, AND TEACHERS.
Dear friends, April, the month of alternating sunshine
and showers, the plowing, spading, and planting month, is
just past. The relation the child holds to the month and
season is a phase of environment which the Child-Garde?i
aims to fit into child life. To make this a little plainer to
the care-takers of the child, we will each month give the
thought of the month which should be specialized and em-
phasized in the talks with the children. Some of the stories
and songs should relate to the natural phenomena of the
month, as it is better for the child to grow naturally into
harmonious relations with each varying season, thus being
enabled to draw from it the vitality which nature is yearning
to give her children. Each season has its store of strength,
of actual nourishment, for each and every human soul. The
gifts April and May hold in store are many, but hidden away,
to be revealed amply in the six months that follow. We
advise that you give the children the spades, hoes, rakes,
and garden trowels they are always asking for in the early
spring days, and, showing them how to use the tools, let
them work in the soft, moist earth to their full bent, each
child having its own garden bed. Then will come the plant-
ing, which is such a mystery to the child. Explain to the
ever-inquiring mind nature's patient process in awakening
the soul of the seed to life, which is now buried in the dark,
moist soil, and how the plant and blossom are the result of
this awakening. Lead the child to see how it can follow the
patient earth mother in many ways in its own little life.
Point out to it how careful she is in all the marvelous work
she does under ground that the life above ground may be
beautiful to behold. Thus you can lead the child to evolve
patience from within, instead of forcing self-restraint upon
it by the power of your will.
Vol. 6-45
722 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Tree planting is most instructive, and each child should
help to plant a tree every spring. The study of the growth
of the trees it has planted, and the different varieties, will
prove most profitable to the young and expanding soul. All
trees are beautiful, but some are more beautiful than others.
The enduring, the stately, the grand varieties, should be
selected for planting about the home, that the child may
constantly live under their ennobling influences as the form-
ative years pass. The elm, beech, maple, oak, chestnut,
European larch, white birch, Norway fir, magnolia, palmetto,
and live oak are all grand and beautiful trees for the child to
grow up with and study year by year. The wise pruning of
these should be taught, and in bringing them to the greatest
perfection of strength and beauty it will — first uncon-
sciously, then consciously — learn something of value in
bringing its own life to perfection. The elm bears much
cutting, while all the other varieties named need little.
The brave little flowers that push through the cold
ground, refresh the soul of the child. The study of birds at
this season is good also. They are as busy selecting nesting
places as is the human family in any thriving community.
Study nature yourselves in all her wonderful mysteries with
the young mind, renewing your faith in her power to give
forth spiritual abundance as well as material. Enter the
fairy world once more, and in the groves, streams, sedgy
banks, and mossy nooks call forth the sprites that have
gladdened the imagination of childhood since the beginning
of time. We cannot do away with the fairies. They are
the divine as well as the natural companions of the little
ones, the weavers of the golden threads that unite all peo-
ples and all ages with our own. The unity of delight that
comes from peopling with bright-eyed, gayly appareled
fairies, the same in all lands and climes, makes childhood
essentially one the world over, and it is good for each and
all to know this. We aim to awaken childhood to intelli-
gent consciousness through the constant use of the imag-
inative faculty in the daily prosaic duties. — Anna Norris
Ke?idall.
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 723
THE KINDERGARTEN SPIRIT IN THE HOME AND SCHOOL.
While kindergarten work and kindergarten methods
can have no place in our country schools as at present or-
ganized, except possibly as "busy work," it would be much
better for us if the kindergarten spirit prevailed to a much
greater extent in both our schools and our homes. It was
Froebel's idea that the home should be the kindergarten
and the mother the kindergartner, and it'was only when he
realized that it was impossible for the great mass of moth-
ers, as he found them, to carry out his ideas, that he at-
tempted to ingraft it on the public school system; and even
then he seemed to regard this as a temporary expedient,
until the mothers should be better trained and better taught
and thus be enabled to carry out his plans. Today kinder-
gartens are being organized in all our larger cities as well
as in many of our smaller towns. There can be no doubt
that the kindergarten has come to stay, so far as the towns
are concerned. The only hindrances to the growth of the
plan seem to be, first, a lack of trained kindergartners who
have become imbued with the true spirit of Froebel's plan,
and second, a want of funds. But for the country districts
the kindergarten in its present form is an impossibility.
Their only opportunities to enjoy any of its advantages are
through the public school teacher, and more especially
through the mothers — Froebel's primary plan; for the
teacher in an ungraded school has little time for work of
this kind, and besides, the child has passed the years when
kindergarten work will be of most value to him before he
enters the public school. — C. G. Sivmglc, editor Majihattau
{Kan.) Educator.
THE world's REGENERATION THROUGH THE MOTHER.
While I delight in the success of the kindergarten as an
educational institution for the child who has reached a state
of development where he demands social intercourse and
breaks away from the nursery, I regret the total absence of
kindergarten methods and training during the first three
years of awakening consciousness.
724 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
If one doubts the value or propriety of attempting to
direct the unfoldment of the child's senses during infancy,
I can only refer him to Froebel's writings and to the testi-
mony of his students and followers.
How few children receive wise care in the nursery, as
far as their spiritual and mental development is concerned!
Indeed, how comparatively few mothers suspect the impor-
tance of this perio'd and its influence on their child's after
life.
A half century has passed since Froebel labored with
the peasant mothers of a little German village, and thou-
sands of intelligent, educated women of America have awak-
ened to the need of child culture in the nursery; and their
earnest inquiry is. How can I learn? where is the book?
who can teach me?
With the hundreds of books which have been written for
mothers and kindergartners there is not one today, even
from the pen of Froebel, which clearly and comprehensively
shows the mother how to apply kindergarten methods and
principles to the everyday vexatious problems of the nurs-
ery world.
There are scarcely a half dozen books for which it could
be claimed that they even attempt to cover this ground, and
these are available only to the favored few who have an
insight into the higher life, but are valuless to the average
mother who is most in need of help and inspiration.
Such a book or set of books should be full of sugges-
tion, yet explicit enough for the most unimaginative mother.
It should give a detailed program for a complete course of
three years' training.
It should fully explain to the mother, in connection with
each day's program, the purpose and the underlying princi-
ple of every song, game, or lesson proposed, and suggest
additional ways of developing the subject which can be
utilized if the mother has sufficient insight and opportunity.
To be sure, the first year's curriculum would not be very
rigorous, but it should teem with helpful suggestions to the
mother and arouse her to greater effort and devotion with
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 725
the in,creasing receptiveness of her child; and the second
year would be filled with promise, while the third year
would see the little child flower, a beautiful bud ready to be
transplanted into the larger life of the kindergarten.
Don't, please don't, think I advocate the cramming of
infants or overlook the possible misuse or misinterpretation
of such a book.
It should be filled with cautions and warnings, and antic-
ipate all possible wrong application which the experience
of trained kindergartners and trained mothers can suggest.
It is to be devoutly hoped that some true disciple of the
children's great friend and philosopher will write this book,
and if it were widely circulated and adopted into the houses
of America, it would, I believe, do more to diffuse kinder-
garten principles and raise a new generation upon a higher
moral plane than all other existing influences combined.
Women are constantly demanding better preparation for
intellectual pursuits; why not for motherhood?
When the happy day comes that our colleges add to
their curriculum the preparation of young women — and
young men also, for that matter — for parenthood, then we
may not depend upon such a book, although its great value
will be only the more appreciated.
Many of the leading kindergarten spirits have testified
to the great need of such a guide, and believe that the
world is now ready for it; but as yet no one has volunteered
to write it.
Who will take up Froebel's great work of regenerating
the world through the mother? — Louis H. Allen, Buffalo, N.
K, March lo, i8g4.
[The writer may be interested to know that a manuscript is now
under preparation which will aim to fill some, if not all, of the abpve
demands. — Editor.]
jake's work and play.
One day Jake's mamma gave him a circular piece of
paper to play with, and he had such a good time I want to
tell you what he did with it.
726
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
For a time it was the big round moon (Fig. i), and Jake
imagined he could see the face of the man who lives there.
Then he folded the paper in half and found he had a
rocking-horse (Fig. 2). Putting his front and middle fin-
gers across the back of his horse, he was ready for a trip to
the moon.
Remembering it was a long journey, he decided to take
some lunch; and by folding the paper into quarters and
tying two opposite quadrants together, he had a lunch bas-
ket (Fig. 3 )!
Dividing the circle into eight equal sectors and pushing
two of them on each side in, and pasting a pease stick
through the center, Jake had an umbrella to carry if it
rained (Fig. 4).
By folding a and b (in Fig. 4) to c, and d and ^ to / he
had a parasol (Fig. 5).
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT.
72;
Omitting the stick and tying a bowknot of worsted at
the center, he had a fan (Fig. 6).
Another day, while playing with a circle of paper, he
made the umbrella, and instead of putting.a stick in for a
handle, he decided that the paper looked like sailor's trou-
sers; and he turned the four curved edges up as sailors
would do in muddy weather (Fig. 7).
■>//
Then by turning one corner on the right side and one
corner on the left side to the top, or a and b up to c, he had
a soldier's cap (Fig. 8). By putting his finger into the
soldier's cap and making the rosette the top, and turning
the curved cape down at the back, he had a hood for his
baby sister.
From Fig. 7 he makes a fireman's cap, by opening and
folding down on the middle one corner on the back and
one corner on the front, as in Fig. 10.
Fold the two points that extend below the cap, under or
728 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
inside the cap (these are the ear flaps, and are not always
used); open the cap at the right side and fold the point up
on the outside of the cap as far as it will go, and you will
have Jake's fireman's cap, with a cape at the back to pro-
tect the fireman's neck from cinders (Fig. ii). — Norma B.
Allen, Cora M. Allen.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT QUESTIONS.
The other day when I was making some purchases in a
store I heard a little boy, who was revolving on one of the
stools before the glove counter, say to his mother, pointing
to the cash carrier, "Mamma, what is it for?"
"Oh," replied the mother, smiling over her own pertness,
"it's just to make little boys ask questions, I guess."
She was interested in the gloves she was selecting, and
doubtless did not see the hurt look on the bright little face.
Very likely, reading the different moods and expressions
which are often so plainly pictured on a child's face was
not an absorbing passion with her. I was glad that the
clerk did not smile. I was thinking of the pleasure my
own little lad gets from a visit to a large store, and what a
wonderful affair to him is the "penny railroad," as he calls
it. Just then the mother moved down to the ribbon coun-
ter, and the glove clerk bent down to that wondering little
boy and explained to him the workings of the cash carrier,
showing him the inside of the balls which carry the money.
He was pleased, as children generally are with any mechan-
ical wonder. I sometimes think they are much more appre-
ciative of machinery, are more amazed at the wonders it
performs, than we grown-ups.
I do not believe that the children who are satisfied, who
are answered, are very apt to ask foolish questions. It is
the child who knows nothing will be given him in reply, who
asks foolish questions for the sake of saying something.
As to my own experience, I have never been troubled by
being asked questions which a child could fully answer
himself by a little thinking, but I have always endeavored
to answer every question to the best of my ability. I will
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 729
admit that I have days when my head spins, and when I
feel that I ought to have a place alongside the encyclope-
dia and on the same shelf with the dictionary and an un-
abridged natural history, so many and so serious are the
queries of one small, curious, thirsty little boy. But I try
to remember that a good gardener always heeds the plead-
ings of his young growing slips for water; and as the young
plants are watched and watered, the'ir roots grow stronger
and the tender young plant reaches out into the warm sun-
shine for itself, strong in its own strength. When I do not
know, I say so, and promise, if it is not beyond human wis-
dom, to look it up at the library or to ask some one who
does know.
For a long time after the Fair our bedtime talk was
about the Fair and what I had seen there. What a world
of questions it brought out, not only teaching my boy, but
helping me to keep in mind all I had seen! And from the
talks and questions came the desire to see. So we enjoyed
all the pictures in the magazines which contained articles
on the Fair. When our own pictures gave out we spent
several afternoons at the library together, looking at views
and books of the Fair. Till the Fair came to interest us I
do not think that he had known or realized that there are
other countries, other nations than his own. Now he seems
to be intensely interested in the people of other countries,
especially in the little Jap people whom we have been talk-
ing about lately since looking at some interesting pictures
of Japanese children. Whenever he hears a new geograph-
ical name his first question is, "Mamma, is it in the 'Nited
States?" Within a few days he has asked me if "Illinois is
one of the 'Nited States."
As an experiment I have been jotting down at night in a
notebook all of the questions asked through the day — that
I could remember. I have found it very interesting, and
I am sure if we could keep a. record of these questions,
thoughts, and words of childhood, we might in studying
them sometimes get more than an inkling into the charac-
ter and tastes of our wee lads and lasses. In looking over
730 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and summing up the contents of this little notebook I sur-
mise that my young son has steadily growing within him a
decided taste for natural history, a never-to-be -satisfied
longing to know more and more about the creeping, flying,
and swimming creatures of this wonderful world. To illus-
trate, I will quote a few of the questions he has asked us,
taken from the record of one week:
"Why don't bears have longer tails to brush flies off,
like horses and cows? And, Mamma, what makes -them
swing their feet so funny when they turn around?" We
were watching the bears at the park, and this peculiar
movement had escaped my eyes, but not his faithful orbs.
And the movements made by old Bruin, after we had been
taught by a child to use our eyes, sent us all into fits of
laughter, they were so serious and so funny.
Other questions were: "Do angleworms have eyes?"
"Why do fishes have scales? and what are their fins for?"
"Can fishes see?" " Do sea anemones have eyes?" "Where
do the angleworms go in the winter?" "What makes the
birds rustle in the driveway dirt?"
And there are constantly questions about the sun, the
moon, and the stars, and the workings of nature, which we
in our weak nature cannot answer. Mothers are ever tell-
ing the wonderful questions their children ask. Does it not
show how high, how near to God, are the thoughts of a lit-
tle child? And how the hands which lead them should
tremble lest we drag them to the earth! — Nellie Nelsofi
Amsde?i, Clevela?td, O.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR HOME TEACHING.
A mother writes as follows from New Jersey:
My case is much the same as that of L. B. S. in the November
magazine. I can't say, however, that I know where to begin as she.
We have no first-class kindergarten, or I would certainly send my chil-
dren. We are disgusted with the ordinary "nurse girl"; their associa-
tion at best is not what children should have. So I have concluded to
dispense with them, and take full charge of the children myself. This
I found myself unequal to in the fuller sense, and started the three older
ones to public school at the opening of last term. Now they talk of
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 73 1
nothing but their " words " and " number work," and endeavor to sing the
little songs for me as I try to catch the air and accompany. One, a boy
not yet six years, a very strong character, affectionate, confiding, is, if I
understand him, developing the rude boy, and is entirely changed in so
short a time. Not knowing what to do, I appealed to you. In the nurs-
ery they need occupation; we have exhausted all that the toy shops
offer. Could I make use of the "gifts," and which ones? Where shall I
get them? Their activities need directing. I am willing, and indeed
feel convinced that I should lay out all I possibly can afford in books
and materials, or even deprive myself, if necessary, that I may properly
develop the higher natures of my children. — E. J. L.
As a public school teacher and kindergartner, I extend
to you my sympathy in your perplexity concerning your
children. I know so well what ordinary public school life
is for a little child, that, unless the school be an exception-
ally good one, my advice to a mother is, usually, to keep
her child out of its atmosphere until he is at least seven or
eight years old. With the school course of study for a
guide, you would teach your boy in an hour or two a day
what he would be a whole school day in acquiring under a
teacher who has a roomful to attend to. The moral atmos-
phere of a public school closely resembles its physical at-
mosphere, and bears hard upon a little child who has not
lived long enough in the world to have acquired much
power of resistance in six years. Because he Is not strong
enough, at that early period, to resist the evil that surrounds
him, he very readily becomes rude, noisy, rough, and often
worse, through his association with other boys. At nine
or ten years old he is stronger morally, as well as physically,
and less likely to be injured by unrefined surroundings. I
do not think you would do much with the kindergarten
gifts, unless you have a good opportunity to study their use
and meaning; but the occupation work would undoubtedly
be a great help in your nursery. Pleasant outdoor surround-
ings, 2L place in which to work and play, tools to work with,
and gardens and pets, are the best gifts that parents can
bestow upon their children. Companions of whom you are
reasonably sure, and plenty of good storybooks, will go far
toward developing the higher natures of your children. If
you cannot teach your little folks yourself, no money would
732 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
be better spent than that necessary to employ a really good
teacher for them. If a few neighbors would join together
in this, public school "evil communications which corrupt
good manners" would be kept out of the children's lives for
a few years at least. I have taught five years in public
schools, though a kindergartner, since taking my- kindergar-
ten course, that I might practically know what the children
in the kindergartens have ahead of them. I know few pub-
lic schools to which I would dare send a child of my own.
The teachers cannot do much individual work while they
have to teach such large numbers; they have, as a body,
little idea of the true education, and the surroundings are
usually coarse and unrefined, if not actually evil. Here and
there you will find a conscientious, progressive teacher who
would do better for your children than you would do your-
self, because of her acquaintance with educational methods
and principles; but such are rare.
Read Dr. Rice's book, "The Public School System of
the United States," and prove your children's school by it.
It will be a help to you throughout your whole life with
your children. I am sorry there is no good kindergarten
near you, as that would probably solve many of your prob-
lems.—A'. B:
"Is there any book which relates to correct answers to
children's difficult questions?" This question comes to our
Mothers' Department. Anyone knowing of such will kindly
inform the editor, on behalf of inquirer.
FIELD NOTES.
Lincoln, Neb., is one of those happy college towns whose inhabit-
ants, one and all, succumb to the town pride of having the best univer-
sity in the state. A community given over to high educational ideals
and standards, and equally noble practices and demonstrations, is un-
avoidably up to the times. Public schools cannot fall short of the best,
in a community where parents and citizens have purposely gathered be-
cause of its superior educational advantages; where every grade teacher
may partake of university privileges; where children grow up under the
desirable tradition that the large purpose of life is kno'wi7ig. Such a
community is not indifferent to the clamis of that educational- doctrine
known as the kindergarten. During the past year four public school
kindergartens have been successfully conducted by trained workers, un-
der the direction of a special supervisor. The latter fact is to the credit
of the school management, for in many instances city school systems
have sought to add the kindergarten merely as a sub-primary grade,
without taking into consideration the vast degree of difference between
primary and kindergarten methods, — the latter requiring constant re-
construction. Mrs. Mary H. Barker, at various times connected with
the public kindergarten work in Boston, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, has had
the supervision of the Lincoln kindergarten and primary department.
She is known among her fellow workers in the East as a woman of un-
usual natural equipment and a typical. New England product. Mrs.
Barker has had the pleasure of meeting primary teachers and kinder-
gartners together in regular program work and study on Saturday morn-
ings, thus bringing a unity into the elementary school work of the city.
It was a great pleasure, in visiting the schools of Lincoln, to pass from
the kindergarten into the primary, and to find the blackboards continu-
ing the same stories in a more advanced form, and hear the same nature
songs, peculiar to the season. To pass from here to the principal's of-
fice, and hear a warm testimonial of the growth of both children and
teachers under this plan of work, was the culminating proof of a pro-
gressive school system. A recent change in the school board of Lin-
coln may alter the face of the kindergarten growth in this city, but this
can only be a temporary adjustment. Every school principal and super-
intendent who was present at the Richmond convention in February
knows that the sentiment of that body means a universal movement
toward public school kindergartens. One who has been so cordially re-
ceived by school men and women of a community as it was my privilege
to be last March, cannot do otherwise than continue a sincere interest in
734 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
every movement of its schools, in behalf of its boys and girls. — Ainalie
Hofer.
The Western Drawing Teachers' Association holds its first annual
meeting at Milwaukee, May 3, 4, and 5. This association was organized
in Chicago during the summer of 1893, for the promotion of art in the
public schools. The membership is made up from among school super-
visors of drawing, manual training teachers, kindergartners, superin-
tendents of schools, principals, grade teachers, and all lovers of art.
The preliminary program arranged for the Milwaukee meeting can be
secured by addressing the general secretary, Mrs. Antoinette Miller,
392 Washington boulevard, Chicago. The following papers are an-
nounced: Address by president. Miss Ada M. Laughlin, supervisor
drawing, St. Paul, Minn.; "Art in the Schoolroom," Miss Florence Hol-
brook, principal Forestville school, Chicago; "Art Message from the
World's Fair," Mrs. Lucy Fitch Perkins, formerly art instructor at Pratt
Institute; Paper — "The Principles of Froebel as the Soundest Peda-
gogics upon which to Base the Educational Side of Form Study and
Drawing," Miss Amalie Hofer, editor and publisher of the Kinder-
garten Magazine, Chicago; "Fundamental Art Principles Capable
of being Recognized and Practiced in the Work of Elementary Schools,"
Miss Lucy S. Silke, Chicago; "The Principles of Manual Training in
our Preparatory Schools," Professor Gabriel Bamberger, Hebrew Man-
ual Training school, Chicago; "The Permeating of Instruction with the
Spirit of Froebel," Mrs. Alice H. Putnam, principal Chicago Froebel
Association; Address — President Hervey, State Normal school; Lec-
ture— Dr. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, Chicago; "Feeling for the Beautiful an
Instinct of Childhood," Bertha Payne; "Methods in Illustrative Draw-
ing," Mrs. Kent, supervisor of drawing, Minneapolis; "Methods with
Geometric Solids," Mrs. Jean MacWhorter Mellor, assistant supervisor
of drawing, Chicago; "Methods in Pen and Ink," Frederick Xewton
Williams, Chicago Manual Training school; "Methods in Co-lor,"Mrs.
M. E. Riley, supervisor of drawing, St. Louis; " Methods and Subjects
m Nature Study," Miss Lucy S. Silke, special teacher drawing, Chicago.
Hawaiian Kindergartens. — The following statements, reprmted
from the Honolulu Star of March 5, are most interesting. The va-
ried population of this republic adds to the remarkable possibilities
of the in itself romantic work: "In a published letter Mr. Frank W.
Damon describes the kindergarten work in this city as 'a potent and
helpful factor in illuminating and beautifying the lives of needy little
ones and in starting them right in their careers.' How just this charac-
terization is, the public is well aware; and it is pleasant to find, in the
data which Mr. Damon supplies, ample proof that large numbers of
children of various nationalities have been enabled to avail themselves
of the kindergarten privilege. In the Morgan Hebard school 125 Chi-
nese boys have from time to time been enrolled, forty-three of whom
FIELD NOTES. 735
have won their way to a higher grade. The statistics of the Hawaiian
kindergarten are equally interesting. The school opened with but one
pupil; at the end of February, twenty-nine pupils were in attendance.
In March there were thirty-six; in June, forty-one. On February 21,
1894, there were thirty-eight pupils registered, with an average attend-
ance of from thirty to thirty-five. The Rice kindergarten, for Portu-
guese, has thirty-eight names on its books and a total enrollment from
the first, of eighty-one. The Japanese kindergarten, recently opened in
Queen Emma Hall, has enrolled thirty-one, and has an average daily
attendance of sixteen and twenty. In addition to these schools a second
Chinese one has been opened in the heart of the Oriental quarter, and
is doing well."
The first Annual Report of the Morristown (X. J.) Free Kindergar-
ten Association is at hand. The constitution and by-laws of this asso-
ciation are practical and direct. It is an important step in organized
charity and philanthropy, which is now being encouraged, — this of
keeping the parliamentary work of a society sound and simple. The
energy of a kindergarten association should be constantly proportioned
to the work in hand, that it may serve its purpose of helpmg little chil-
dren as well as an association. Miss Annie K. F. Smith, secretary of the
Morristown association, among other interesting matter makes the fol-
lowing statements in her report: " In recognition of the necessity for
some work to benefit the children under school age in Morristown, a call
was issued one year ago last December, to those interested, to meet for
the purpose of establishing a free kindergarten. An association was
formed and the kindergarten was opened in January (1893), under the
efficient care of Miss Mary Burr, an experienced teacher and a gradu-
ate of the Pollock Kindergarten Training school at Washington, D. C.
The year has been one of marked success, both as to the number of
children under school age in attendance, and in the evidence that the
effort to bring the minds and hearts, as well as the hands, of the little
ones under wise culture, has not been in vain. The Free Kindergarten
Association has found great pleasure in the work of -its first year, and
looks forward with hope and courage to enlarged and helpful efforts in
the future."
Many kindergartners and educators have deplored the fact that they
were unable to make an extensive study of that unique educational ex-
hibit placed in the Liberal Arts Building of the Exposition by the Pes-
talozzi-Froebel Haus of Berlin. The entire exhibit of hand work, which
was presented to the Chicago Free Kindergarten Association, is now
finally and systematically arranged in the rooms given over to this de-
partment at the Armour Institute. We would advise all who have not
had occasion to study the same, to avail themselves of the invitation of
this association, and do so. The four bronze groups taken from the life
736 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and children of the Pestalozzi-Froebel house are also at the Armour
Institute until further disposition can be made of the same. The beauty
and simplicity of these tigures, which are for sale, is daily recognized by
the .children of the mission and the kindergarten, as they caress and
fondle the bronzes. The subjects were described in a previous num-
ber of this magazine, and one of them was reproduced as the " Little
Gardener," to ornament the September number. There is also a port-
folio of the choice drawings which a master artist of Germany prepared
for this exhibit, which can be seen at any time at the editorial rooms
of the Kindergarten Magazine. The frontispiece of this number is
a reproduction of the remarkable bas-relief which was placed as the
front panel and title to the entire exhibit, and which reveals the name
and principles of the Pestalozzi-Froebel house.
"Anthropology, by study of primitive communities and by tracing
the development of social organisms, lays a broad and sure foundation
for scientilic sociology; but it does not grapple with labor problems or
penitentiary reforms. The anthropologist may measure criminals, but
he does not make laws. Anthropology may include within its objects of
study a basket or a pot, it may investigate the pictures rudely painted
on a cliff, or strive to reproduce the almost vanished scratches upon a
bit of bone or antler; but it does not found a pottery, or study light and
shade, or criticise a Rubens. Upon the Anthropological Building at
Chicago we read the inscription, 'Man and his Works.' In anthropol-
ogy, when we study man's works it is not for themselves, but only as in
them man himself is reflected. Only as man's mind is revealed in prod-
ucts do we care for them. Nor is it particularly the idea of one man
that we seek, but that of the race; not the progress and the victory of
the individual, but of all mankind." — Prof. Frederick Starr, in April
Chmitauquan.
The Executive Committee of the National Council of Women hold
their annual meeting May 7 and 8, in the city of Philadelphia. As ihe
International Kindergarten Union is a member of this council, all kin-
dergartners will be interested in the movements of the same. Owing to
the initiative taken by the National Council, local councils are rapidly
springing up throughout the country, each in its own community apply-
ing to local needs the principles of individual organic liberty and mu-
tual helpfulness among organized bodies, now so generally recognized
as the dominant principles in what has come to be popularly known as
the "council idea." One important question to be settled by the Execu-
tive Committee at its approaching meetmg is the relation of local coun-
cils to the National Council, and the representation to which local
-councils shall be entitled at the sessions of the National Council in its
meeting in 1895.
The St. Andrew'' s Record, of Rochester, N. Y., recently published a
FIELD NOTES. 73?
most attractive account of the St. Andrew's Kindergarten and Training
school, conducted by Mrs. Katherine Whitehead. We reprint a few-
sentences: "They have pleasant rooms where the sun shines all day,
and they have at the head a teacher who knows them all by mind and
heart as well as by name and face, and who loves to teach them to think
and grow according to the natural, sure method, of which she is master.
This kindergarten is such a sweet and fine ' child garden,' it makes me
think cheerfully and with courage of the kind of men and women who
will be Riling grown-up places in the world fifteen and twenty years
from now. The kind of teaching they have is alw-ays bringing their
minds to the light. They are learning life and the order of life, by
actual, individual sight and touch."
The Cook County Normal Summer school will convene at Engle-
wood fi'om July 9 to 27, with the following corps of workers: Psychol-
ogy and pedagogics — methods in concentration — Francis W. Parker;
mathematics, William M. Griffin; elementary science, Wilbur S. Jack-
man; history and literature, Emily J. Rice; art, Ida Cassa Heffron;
physical culture, Charles J. Kroh; elocution and Delsarte system of
expression, Frank Stuart Parker; geography and structural map-draw-
ing, Zonia Baber; kindergarten, Anne E. Allen; manual training, Wal-
ter J. Kenyon; vocal music, Eleanor Smith; primary methods — illus-
trated by class work — Sarah E. Griswold; model school for observation
— free in connection with the other courses — Flora J. Cooke. The tui-
tion for any four courses, or for any less number, is twelve dollars; addi-
tional courses, each, three dollars.
The following was the program for the celebration of Froebel's
birthday at Cook County Normal school, Chicago, Saturday afternoon,
April 21, 1894: Grand march, in which all participated; games, by the
pupils of the Chicago Kindergarten College; special march, by the
pupils of Mrs. E. L. Hailmann's training class, La Porte, Ind.; an ad-
dress by Colonel F. W. Parker — subject, "The Relation of Froebel's
Principles to All Education"; songs by the pupils of Mrs. Alice H. Put-
nam's class of the Froebel Kindergarten Association, Chicago; Delsarte
charades, by the pupils of the Chicago Free^Cindergarten Association;
closing songs, in which all were invited to join. A large concourse of
workers and lovers of kindergarten was present, and a greater degree
of enthusiasm and harmony was never experienced than on this occa-
sion.
Miss Florence Marsh, assistant supervisor of the public schools
of Detroit, Mich., has executed a series of sewmg stencil cards for pub-
lic school and kindergarten use, which for practicability and economy are
to be heartily commended. A. Flanagan & Co., of Chicago, have placed
them upon the market. The series of designs covers a year's variety of
subjects, and were prepared through the practical experience of Miss
Vol. 6-46
738 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
Marsh's own work. Forty designs cover the changes of season; another
series includes the chief hohdays and occasions of school life, and will
therefore be found eminently appropriate. Each design is in stencil,
and is to be transferred on cards as many times as there are pupils.
Thus one set of stencils will enable the teachers to make hundreds of
v,ards.
The Froebel Institute, at Lansdowne, Pa., is a graded school on the
kindergarten basis, enrolling sixty children ranging from two to fourteen
years of age. A Parents' Round Table, for practical study and discus-
sion, is carried on in connection with the school, and is demonstrating
that unity can exist between parents, teachers, and children. Froebel's
birthday was kept royally, and children, parents, and all participated in
the preparations as well as the pleasures of the same. Are kindergart-
ners not a little apt to count parents out when it comes to the pleasure,
che joy, the spirit of their doctrines? Greater generosity in sharing the
good things of our work would inevitably bring response from parents.
A "Kindergarten Blackboard" has recently appeared, the joint work
of the Misses Mackenzie, of Philadelphia. It brings a series of simple
outline drawings for the daily use of the kindergartner and the teacher.
The topics illustrated are appropriate to changing seasons and recur-
ring holidays. Miss Constance Mackenzie writes an introduction to the
same, on the general purposes of drawing and illustrative work in the
kindergarten. The book has a pleasing cover of terra cotta color, and
the plates are clearly printed, doing justice to Milton Bradley & Co.,
who have put it on the market.
A BENEFIT was given to the united philanthropists of the University
Settlement Association and the Free Kindergarten Association of New
York city, March 26 and 28, under the direction of Mr. Walter Damrosch,
giving the German operas "Die Walklire" and "Die Gotterdammer-
ung." These two lines of social reform in cities are gomg hand in hand.
Every kindergartner should interest herself in the social settlement
movement. Every kindergarten that reaches back into the homes of an
abnormal city quarter belongs in its essence to this newer order of sociad
reform.
The Northwestern Wisconsin Teachers' Association held its annual
meeting at Green Bay, Wis., April 3 to 5. Among the choice topics dis-
cussed were " Education and Citizenship," by L. D. Harvey of Mil-
waukee; "The Kindergarten — its Objects, Aims, and How Some of its
Features may be Utilized in Primary Teaching," by Miss Bloss, from
which we print the greater part in this number of the Kindergarten
Magazine. Every teachers' association is a democratic platform, from
which the most vital problems of the school should be frankly and
freely discussed.
FIELD NOTES. 739
The usual kindergarten department will be carried on at Chautau-
qua, N. Y., Miss Frances Newton, of Chicago, director. A training class
as well as mothers' study class will be conducted, in connection with the
forenoon and afternoon kindergartens. The influence which is annually
sent out through this summer kindergarten work at Chautauqua opens
the eyes and hearts of thousands of transient visitors and students. It
is said, "Yes, the kindergarten work^ is growing to be popular." It
should be popular among earnest, intelligent, and warm-hearted people.
The Practical Kindergarten Club of Galveston, Tex., have selected
the following characters, as legitimate for consideration in the kinder-
garten, requesting a discussion of same in the Kindergarten Maga-
zine: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alfred the Great, Morse,
Edison, Watt, Whitney, Fulton, Shakespeare, Ruskin, Scott, Longfel-
low, Lowell, Hawthorne, Dickens, Bunyan, Tennyson, Bacon, Lafayette,
Peter Cooper, Peabody, Clara Beeson Hubbard, Kate Douglas Wiggin.
Louise M. Alcott, Jeanne D'Arc, Elizabeth Peabody, Benjamin Franklin.
At Columbus, N. C, is the only kindergarten within a radius of a
hundred miles — conducted by Miss Jessie M. Huse, of the Chicago Free
Kindergarten Association. Miss Huse writes: "This work seems to be
appreciated by the Southern people, and we hope to extend it and form
a training school. We find a large field here for enthusiastic, trained
kindergartners." Such reports from unexpected directions warn us
that new fields are opening, and that the demand grows for self-reliant,
creative, executive, pioneer kindergartners.
The Ontario Educational Association met in annual session March
27-29. The kindergarten department, under the direction of Miss Laid-
law, held three profitable sessions. Among other practical papers, Mrs.
L. T. Newcomb presented one on "The Transition Class"; Mrs. Ada
Hughes, on "Creative Development of Occupations with Assistants";
Miss Mary Macintyre, "The First Year's Training"; Miss Bertha Sav-
age, "Drawing"; Miss A. E. Mackenzie, "How to Introduce the Kinder-
garten into a New Place."
The publication of the Volume of Proceedings of the International
Congresses of Education has been delayed by reason of the great
amount of material to be edited, and the translation of papers presented
in foreign languages. This volume, which promises to be the most val-
uable ever issued by the association, will be ready for delivery some
time during April.
Repeated inquiries have come for the now famous report of that
"Committee of Ten," on secondary education. It was published in
Harper s Weekly for November 18, 1893, and ten cents forwarded to the
same will secure a copy of the report; or an application to the Commis-
sioner of Education, Washington, will bring the desired document.
740 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Summer Work. — Hundreds of our enthusiastic professional kinder-
gartners have taken up the work of actively introducing the Child-Gar-
den. Even training teachers report that where they have succeeded in
introducing this magazine a more hearty response comes from the entire
neighborhood, and a deeper interest is taken by the parents in seeing
the kindergarten succeed. We want every one of our readers to send
for ten sample numbers, and secure one subscriber with each copy. On
a club of ten for $io, we allow the kindergartner to keep $5 for her trou-
ble; and so, besides interesting the community, she is helping herself.
Let every training teacher suggest this to her young ladies before they
disband for the summer, and it will be a great benefit in many ways.
Miss Elizabeth Harrison is spending several weeks at Minne-
apolis and St. Paul, Minn., giving a course of six lectures in each city.
Miss Harrison's talks on child training are brimming with sound doc-
trine, practical illustrations, and dramatic force. Her own' earnest con-
victions, as well as personal culture, make her public lectures a source
of great growth to all who hear her.
Miss Ajialie Hofer will spend the latter half of the month of May
in the East, meeting engagements with training schools, visiting the
various points of work, and studying comparative methods of normal
training, in both private and state normal schools. Miss Frances New-
ton will accompany her, prelimmary to the opening of her usual work
at the summer Chautauqua.
No teacher who will mistreat a pupil can ever teach the "Vision of
SirLaunfal"; conversely, no teacher who can teach the "Vision of Sir
Launfal " will ever want to mistreat a pupil. In a genuinely good school
the teacher does not enjoy herself, nor do the pupils enjoy themselves,
but they enjoy one another. — L. H. Jottes, Indianapolis.
Mrs. J. C. Lawson, representing the American M. E. Mission at
Aligarh, India, has forwarded us a group of photographs of her kinder-
garten children. The Oriental, full-faced Hindoo children must be an
interesting family as they gather about an American kindergartner,
with the native environment and landscape about them.
The next meeting of the National Educational Association will be
held at Asbury Park, N. J., July 6-13, 1894, the Trunk Line Association
having granted the usual half rates, plus two dollars (membership fee),
with extension of tickets for return to September i. The kindergarten
department will hold regular sessions as usual.
In the February number of the Kindergarten Magazine (page
499) the date of Miss Marwedel's death was given as October 20, 1893.
Miss Marwedel died November 17, 1893. An extended memoir of her,
written by Mr. W. S. Monroe, appeared in the February number of
Educatioti.
FIELD NOTES. 74 1
"The schools hastily substitute an artificial method of words for the
truer method of nature, which knows no hurry and is content to wait.
In this way a specious form of development is produced, hiding the
want of real, inward strength, but satisfying times like our own." —
Pestalozzi.
Reports come from many of the leading kindergarten centers, of
Froebel birthday celebrations. The fact that these gatherings increase
every year, and that they not infrequently unite all the workers of one
or more cities into one social body, are facts worthy of the children's
cause.
The Chicago Kindergarten College has held a series of informal re-
ceptions on Saturday afternoons, at which lectures on various topics of
interest were presented to the students and patrons, including talks on
the Chicago Orchestra, by Mr. D. J. Snider.
The Philadelphia Society of Froebel Kindergartners celebrated
Froebel's birthday, April 21. The exercises included reminiscences
of Elizabeth P. Peabody, as well as a social reunion of the members of
the society, and other kindergartners.
A kindergartner experienced in European travel will take a
party of students and teachers abroad during the summer. For ar-
rangement, information, and dates address at once the Kindergarten
Magazine, Woman's Temple, Chicago.
The printed report of the Minister of Education of Ontario, for 1893,
is at hand, full of interesting data and statements. The illustrated re-
port of the World's Fair educational exhibit from that dominion adds a
valuable chapter to the volume.
At a special session of the St. Louis Society of Pedagogy, April 4,
Dr. Wm. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, lectured
upon "Goethe's Idea of Pedagogy." St. Louis always opens her doors
wide to Dr. Harris.
All interested in summer study must not fail to look up the an-
nouncement of the Chicago Kindergarten College, on first page in our
directory of training schools in this number. Further announcements
next month.
The Milwaukee Froebel Union were addressed on the occasion of
their Froebel birthday celebration by Miss Twitchell, Mrs. Truesdall,
Miss Douglas, Mrs. Winkler, Mrs. Nethercutt, and Mrs. Ide.
Kindergartners having second-hand supplies and furniture
should announce the same in the Kindergarten Magazine. Parties
wishing to secure such outfits apply.
May 25, 1803, was the date of the birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
742 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
The Chicago Kindergarten Club has joined the Federation of Wom-
an's Clubs. It is to be congratulated on going out into this liniversal
relationship.
A DWARF said to a giant: "I have the same rights as you." "True,
my friend," replied the giant; "but you could not walk in my shoes." — •
Pesialozzi.
The Florence (Mass.) kindergarten enrolls 150 children from three
to eight years of age, and provides a four years' course of work.
Mr. Arnold H. Heinemann, of Chicago, has just finished a pro-
fessional course in the Sloyd Training School in Boston.
" It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul
which illummates all men." — Emerson.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
" Mental Development in the Child." — Dr. Preyer, of Jena, has given
us a new book upon this subject that is a valuable addition to psycho-
logical literature and will be of much practical value to parents and
teachers. The work is intended to give in a popular form the deduc-
tions drawn from his recent studies, with the hope of stimulating those
in touch with children to gather the data required for further study in
this direction, with the eventual end in view of placing child education
upon a scientific basis with practical results accruing. So much stress
has been laid upon environment during the recent interest shown in
child study, that Dr. Preyer's views upon the subject will mark an ad-
vance, and possibly open the eyes of many educators to the fact that
true development and true happiness can only be attained by freedom
of the mind from accidental environment; that the child who is taught
in his earliest days, no matter what his surroundings, to direct and con-
trol his interests himself, and largely make his own environment, is the
one who will develop the most rapidly and be most truly happy. Dr.
Preyer says truly, that the observation of mental development in the
earliest years falls naturally to the mother more than to any other per-
son; hence his idea of presenting this science in an easy form for assimi-
lation. A great deal of curious information and much interesting obser-
vation are given in connection with the natural growth of the senses in
their order of development. He says, in a very interesting manner, that
the period of learning is naturally long, as mental growth is the result
of frequent impressions received during waking hours; and inasmuch
as the human being in the first period of his life is asleep much more
than he is awake, the time that remains for him daily for learning to
distinguish these impressions is rather short. Deficient exercise of the
auditory nerve is also touched upon, as a frequent cause of children be-
ing considered unmusical, when in all probability they have been given
no early opportunity to distinguish tones and sensations of sound. Here
again is shown the value of the Froebel method in the " Songs for
Mother and Nursery" ("Mutter und Kose-Lieder"). Preyer declares
that an absolute lack of the musical ear, and hence of ability to dis-
tinguish tones of a certain pitch, is always an anomaly. If this be so, —
and we have every reason to believe it is, — what an immense amount
of failure may be traced to this neglect of opportunity, when we con-
sider the vast number of adults who constantly make us suffer by their
efforts in this direction, who — difficult as it may be to believe — might
have been distinctly the opposite, if the above ideas had been carried
744 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
out in their early education. The general knowledge of vocal music
prevailing abroad, in villages and towns as well as in cities, may be
taken as a forcible illustration of the truth of Preyer's assertion. The
early opportunity is evidently there, and musical ability is a natural
sequence. In the lack of wisdom shown by many parents in wise dis-
crimination, in the vast deluge of advice pouring in upon them from
every quarter (very largely, it must be conceded, from those not imme-
diately interested in children as individuals), Preyer's Principles of
Suggestion, diverting the attention, and — greatest of all — his "letting
alone" system, exercising a supervision of which the child is uncon-
scious, are deserving of consideration by every would-be educator, as
well as those directly in sympathy with these ideas. — Louise E. Hogan.
Hand and Eye, London, is a monthly journal for the promotion of
the kindergarten, sloyd, and all forms- of manual training. The March
number contains practical articles on Manual Training and its Rela-
tions, Suggestions for the Modification of Sloyd Models, Wood-working
Tools, Naas — What does it Mean? and reports from the Froebel So-
ciety and National Froebel Union of England. The publishers of the
journal are Newmann & Co., 84 Newman St., London, W. The article
by Mr. H. Courthope Bowen, M. A., lately of Cambridge LTniversity,
lecturer on the theory of education, discusses the Relation of Manual
Training to Froebel's Principles, in which he dissents from many of the
points which kindergartners usually accredit to Froebel.
"Nature Myths and Stories for Little Children," by Flora J. Cooke,
of the Cook County Normal school, has recently been published by
Flanagan & Co., of Chicago. Miss Cooke is a practical educator, and
has brought out this collection because of a demand for such help
among other teachers. The little volume not only provides an excellent
selection of flower, insect, bird, cloud, animal, and miscellaneous stories,
but it also gives a set of reference books and list of well-known supple-
mentary stories. The stories are printed in clear, large type, and para-
graphed generously enough to be used as a practical reading book for
young readers. Price, 15 cents.
No. VII of the Pedagogical Biography, published by C. W. Bardeen,
and written by R. H. Quick, is devoted to John Henry Pestalozzi. This
is as concise an account of so full a career as could well be prepared,
and will serve as a preparatory study of the larger volume brought out
by the same publisher, — "Pestalozzi, His Aim and Work," translated by
Margaret Crombie from the French biography by Baron De Guimp.
This edition is in a paper cover, to be purchased for 50 cents. Parents
should read of Pestalozzi's methods as father. Teachers should read his
rules and ideals for those in charge of pupils. Philanthropists should
read of his unbounded zeal in the cause of humanity.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS. 745
The Parents' Review, edited by Charlotte E. Mason, London, is the
voice of an influential and energetic educational reform union. The
tendency toward increasing public interest in educational matters in
our own country as well as England and the continent, is one of the
hopeful signs of the new era. The contents for the March Parents'
Review included "The Training of Girls for Professional Life," by
Edith A. Barnett; "Children's Books," Mrs. Sophie Bryant; "Punish-
ment," G. G. F.; "This Restless Age," and "Pages for the Children."
"Three Little Lovers of Nature," by Ella Reeve Ware, is the title
of a recent and delightful addition to juvenile literature. While telling
a very interesting story of the doings, throughout a year, of three bright
little children, it imparts in the most entertaining way many truths of
nature as revealed in the common things around us. It will be appre-
ciated by all who are interested in children, and, as a storybook or
teacher's help, will prove of value in the home or kindergarten. The
price (in paper covers) is 15 cents.
A LATE number of The Artist-Artisan (Quarterly is at hand, which
reveals much of the inner life and work of that interesting institute for
artist-artisans which has been made such a unique institution by its
superintendent, Mr. John Ward Stimson. We find in it some choice
bits of illustration in initial letters, tailpieces, as well as larger studies.
The article on "Conventionalization*" by Mr. Stimson, will bear close
study by such as interest themselves in educational art. Subscription
price, 50 cts. per year.
Edticational Growth is the title of a new monthly published at Leba-
non, O., R. H. Holbrook, Dr. G. D. Lind, editors, who place this para-
graph at the head of their editorial column: "The name of this maga-
zine is intended to indicate its distinctive characteristic. It proposes
to discuss, criticise, judge, and advocate all principles, processes, and
products of education from the standpoint that the mind as an object
of training is first, and always, a conscious growing thing or phenom-
enon."
The. Posse Gytnnasitim Journal is a Boston monthly magazine de-
voted to the interests of gymnastics, with the Baroness Rose Posse,
editor. The March number contains the first of a series of articles on
the subject of medical gymnastics, by Baron Posse, and a most compre-
hensive article by Miss Lucy Wheelock on the Moral Influences of the
Kindergarten. Baron Posse made many friends among the kindergart-
ners at their congress during the summer of 1893.
Education, the monthly magazine published at Boston, carries a reg-
ular department of professional study, called the teachers' International
Reading Circle. Among other books being discussed in its monthly
syllabus is "The Life and Works of Pestalozzi," by De Guimp.
746 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
" Philanthropy and Social Reform " is a substantial volume of ad-
dresses made before the School of Applied Ethics held at Plymouth,
Mass., during the summer of 1893. The opening chapters present a
clear statement of social settlement work and ideals, as carried forward
at Hull House, Chicago. Other chapters consider rational philanthropy
in an eminently practical way.
The Idim, a weekly for he mother and home, edited and published
by Frithiof Hellberg, of Stockholm, Sweden, has reached our desk; also
El Estudio, from Montevideo, South America.
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
Diplomas, etc. — If you want Diplomas for Kindergarten Literature
Classes, or Certificates for shorter courses, Training School Stationery,
Programs, or anything of the kind, correspond with us. Have you
printed your announcements for next year's work? Let us send you
samples and prices. Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Woman's
Temple, Chicago.
We will send to anyone subscribing for Kindergarten Magazine,
and desiring "Symbolic Education," by Susan Blow, both for $2.50;
C/wVrt'-G^ar^^w and "Symbolic Education," §2 ; Kindergarten Maga-
zine, Child-Garden, and "Symbolic Education," $3.25.
Positions Wanted. — Any kindergartner desiring to announce herself
open to a position can have it announced in the pages of the Kinder-
garten Magazine for $1, the same to appear in each number until she
announces herself engaged.
Our new, fully illustrated Catalogue of books appears this month.
It contains portraits of authors never given before; also an essay on
books for children, and gives a completer list than ever, descriptive of
contents and purposes of books given. Send stamp for a copy.
Look out for important announcements in June number of this mag-
azine. It will be a jubilee number, being extra sized, giving a full and
glowing statement of the wonderful growth and outlook of the cause
everywhere. A splendid campaign document! Every kindergartner
ought to possess herself of ten or more copies for distribution and cir-
culation. For $1 we will send ten copies if ordered for this purpose.
Jubilee Number. — Send in every item of vital importance concerning
your work, for our Jubilee June number of Kindergarten Magazine,
before May i. ,
Always. — Subscriptions are stopped on expiration, the last number
being marked, "With this number your subscription expires," and a
return subscription blank inclosed.
Always. — Our readers who change their addresses should imme-
diately notify us of same and save the return of their mail to us. State
both the new and the old location. It saves time and trouble.
Always — Send your subscription made payable to the Kindergarten
Literature Co., W^oman's Temple, Chicago, 111., either by money order,
express order, postal note, or draft. (No foreign stamps received.)
748 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Bound Volumes. — Vols. IV and V, handsomely bound in fine silk
cloth, giving- the full year's work in compact shape, each $3.
Wanted— January, 1893, and March, 1893, numbers of Child- Garden.
Other numbers exchanged for them.
There are only a few copies of V^ol. I of Child-Garde?t to be had.
They are now bound, and being rapidly exhausted. We desire to give
our readers the first chance at purchasing them. Send for it before
they are all gone. Price $2.
Child-Garden Samples. — Send in lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
Rernember some child's birthday with a gift of Child-Garden, only $1
per year.
We want our readers to know that the printing and binding depart-
ment of the Kindergarten Literature Company is in operation and ex-
cellently equipped for the getting out of all kinds of books and miscel-
laneous printing. Send for estimates and information.
Wanted — Back numbers of Kindergarten Magazine. We will
exchange any other number you want in Vols. IV, V, or VI, or any books
in our catalogue, for any back numbers of Vols. I, II, or III, except Vol.
I, No. 12; \q\. II, No. 3; Vol. Ill, No. 10. Address Kindergarten Lit-
erature Co., Chicago.
The attention of teachers in public and private schools is called to
the opportunity afforded by the destruction of the World's Fair build-
ings to obtain excellent examples of architectural details in staff work.
It is possible to obtain at relatively small expense a variety of such
examples, including capitals, friezes, rosettes, brackets, etc., which,
after being cleaned and coated with alabastine (recipe for which will be
sent), will serve as useful a purpose for art instruction as casts which
would probably cost ten times as much. They are just as artistic as
these expensive casts, and would have an added value on account of
their association with the beautiful "White City." Any who desire in-
formation regarding these specimens of staff work, cost of same, etc.,
should correspond with Miss Ida M. Condit, 455/^ Elm street, Chicago.
Crying Babies. — Some people do not love them. They should use
the Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed Milk, a perfect infant food.
A million American babies have been raised to man and womanhood
on the Eagle brand. Grocers and druggists.
Sweet Peas.— For the last two years sweet peas have been largely
admir'ed, and bid fair to soon become as popular as the pansy. Plant a
sunny hedge for the little folk to gather from all summer. The more
you pick them the more luxuriantly they blow. Send for seeds of any
variety to Henry A. Dreer, 714 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, Pa.
KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE
Vol. VI.— JUNE, 1894.— No. ro.
THE RELATION OF THE KINDERGARTEN TO
THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.
JAMES L. HUGHES.
MY chief object in suggesting this subject for dis-
cussion is to urge that we should not continue
to use the words "kindergarten" and "school"
as if they referred to distinct or distantly related
institutions. In its broadest, truest sense the public school
should include whatever is best for the fullest development
of the desirable elements of human power and character.
The state has no right to assume the duty of giving an edu-
cation, unless it provides the best possible training and cul-
ture for its children. It is unjust to parents and children to
do so, and it is contrary to the highest interests of the state
itself. If the kindergarten be truly the most stimulating
educational process at a certain period of a child's develop-
ment, then all children are entitled to its advantages. The
kindergarten should not be an appendage to the public
school system, for a favored part of the school population.
It should be a part of the school system; its foundation; its
initial stage in which all children should remain for a pe-
riod, the length of which should be decided in each individ-
ual case by the heredity, the history, the temperament, the
mental activity, and the nervous system of each individual
child. Children whose physical and mental conditions are
normal do not require to stay in the kindergarten as long as
those whose health is delicate, or whose mental organiza-
750 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
tions are too dull or too active. The slow boy should re-
main longer than the average term in the kindergarten, that
his senses may be quickened and his reflective powers stim-
ulated by the conscious expression of his own thought in
the arrangement or the transformation of material things
into new and definitely related forms. The abnormally
bright child should have a prolonged kindergarten experi-
ence in order that its over-activity may be restrained, its
nervous system soothed, and its physical organization raised
to the standard of its mental energy by the happy spirit,
the interested, applied activity, the satisfying productive-
ness, and the healthful games of the kindergarten. There
are few who now doubt that the processes of learning read-
ing, writing, spelling, number, etc., by set lessons, weaken
interest, and prevent full and general cerebral growth when
forced on children too soon. Even the formal study of na-
ture in its most attractive phases as conducted by the best
"object systems" fails to promote cerebral growth satisfac-
torily, when knowledge of the object studied is the aim of
the lesson, and when the work of the pupil is confined to
receptivity and reflection in response to the teacher's sug-
gestion. The child before it goes to school does not study
things that it may learn about them; it uses things that it
may accomplish its own purposes with them. It learns very
rapidly, but its learning results from the attempts it makes
to execute its individual plans, as it aims to represent its
mental conceptions with material things.
The true sequence in intellectual growth is reception,
reflection, and execution. The first two are of little use
without the third, and the third is the only sure means for
the fullest culture of the others. Educators have been slow
to reach the highest step in this complete sequence. In the
evolution of the true ideal, children have been taught and
trained according to six educational standards. There have
been two stages — a passive and an active stage — in each
step in the sequence of receptivity, reflection, and execu-
tion, making in all six stages in the upward movement of
educational thought. Those whose memories go back thirty
KINDERGARTEN AND PUBLIC SCHOOL. 75 1
years can recall these six stages. Passive receptivity re-
ceived knowledge from the teacher; in active receptivity
the pupils were trained to be investigative. Passive reflec-
tion allowed the pupils to obtain thought from the teacher;
active reflection trained pupils to think independently.
There is a vital distinction between thinking, and "allowing
the thoughts of others to run through our minds"; between
thinking, and thinking we are thinking. There is even more
difference, however, between the active and passive stages
in the highest step in this educational sequence, than in the
preceding steps. The higher the educational process, the
weaker does passivity become when compared with activity.
Self-activity does not mean merely physical activity on
the part of the pupil, stimulated by the teacher's mind act-
ing through the pupil's mind. The pupil's mind cannot
reach its best development as long as it remains a passive
instrument for receiving stimulus from another mind, and
transmitting it to the body for execution. The mind of the
child should be independently active. Its physical efforts
must result from its own motor stimulus before complete
cerebral development takes place. Action in response to
the child's own will is the highest agency in mind growth.
The action of the child's will may begin with unconscious
imitation; but even the action resulting from unconscious
imitation is much more productive of individual growth
than action in obedience to the direct suggestion or com-
mand of another person.
The kindergarten is the only educational system that
fully recognizes this fact, and the equally important related
fact that the child should perform this complete educatipnal
process from the beginning of its educational course. The
kindergarten rejects passivity, but recognizes unconscious
growth of the mind, as it does unconscious growth of the
body. The kindergarten is based on active receptivity, ac-
tive reflection, and active execution by the child; and most
important of all intellectually, it makes active or independ-
ent execution of original purposes by the child the founda-
tion of the definite growth of its receptive and reflective
752 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
powers. It is especially important, therefore, that during
the period of greatest possible brain enlargement, the child
should use material things, not as mere objects of study
even by independent investigation, but as agencies for de-
fining by varied related sense experiences the multitude of
indefinite perceptions of infancy, and for the vjsible repre-
sentation of its clearer conceptions, in response to its own
motor impulses.
No other school process yet discovered accomplishes
these purposes so naturally and so thoroughly as the kin-
dergarten.
No other system so effectively bridges over the chasm
between the home and the school, by a union of the con-
scious concentration of the school with the freedom of the
home.
No other system lays so broad and true a basis for inde-
pendent or assisted growth.
No other system promotes the physical health of chil-
dren so fully, by providing attractive material artd interest-
ing plans for happy self-activity and soul-satisfying self-
expression.
No other system enlarges the wonder power of childhood
— which Gradgrind's ideal schoolmaster, McChoakumchild,
promised to destroy so effectively, but which should develop
in every child day by day a more aggressive spirit of inves-
tigation, first into the mysteries of the material world, and
ultimately 'into the realms of intellect and spirit.
No other system preserves the spontaneity of childhood
and defines individuality so completely; no other system
cultivates the social instincts so thoroughly and widens in-
dividuality into organized cooperation so effectively as the
kindergarten.
Therefore every child is entitled to its advantages.
Both justice and wisdom demand that the public schools
shall include the kindergarten as one of the agencies in the
■ education of the whole people, so long as kindergarten proc-
esses are the best-known means for increasing the power
and accuracy of sense impressions, for defining and enlarg-
KINDERGARTEN AND PUBLIC SCHOOL. 753
ing the reflective powers, for revealing individual responsi-
bility and social relationships, for making the child cre-
atively productive, and for helping it to be self-educative,
self-expressive, self-repressive, self-progressive, self-direct-
ing, and self-executive.
Every child has an inalienable right to the best in educa-
tion. Free kindergartens in poor districts are not enough.
Public school kindergartens in poor districts are not suffi-
cient. The same power in the kindergarten training that in
the poorer districts of a city helps to overcome the evils of
poverty, the lack of home training, bad heredity, and evil
example, and transforms the little Arab into a good citizen,
self-respecting and cooperative, will lift the child of any
class higher, and help it to become a graater power for
good. Children are usually quite as much neglected in the
homes of the wealthy as in the homes of the poor. Too
often the child of the rich is robbed of the greatest agency
in human development, — mother Jove, — far more than the
child of the alley. If the kindergarten supplies the proper
means for the natural growth of body, mind, and spirit
power, every child needs its culture. Defective children
should remain in the kindergarten department for years;
but all children should have a kindergarten training, espe-
cially those who have spent their infancy in cities or
towns, and who have never had the physical, mental, and
moral growth that comes from free contact with the
manifold forms of life and beauty in God's great school of
nature.
Mrs. Browning, the greatest of women, typified in "Au-
rora Leigh" her "grandest ideal of art and life." In reveal-
ing the processes of soul growth by which Aurora Leigh be-
came conscious of individual power and responsibility, she
makes one of the most important of all her educational
influences the life she led in early years, "shut up with
God among his mountains," with the father who loved her
so tenderly that he scarcely dared to stroke her curls lest
he might destroy their golden light. This was the source
of her insight into higher noble things. This gave her a
754 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
love of liberty that widened into a consciousness of individ-
ual freedom, and' a sense of duty so strong that she refused
to marry Romney Leigh, pure and true and cultured though
she knew him to be, and filled with lofty purposes though
he was, because he assumed that woman's individuality
must be sacrificed in marriage, and subordinated to her
husband's ideal. It did more: it gave her a clear insight
into her greatest power; and this is the mightiest element
in the uplifting of human character. She was clear and
true, and dared to "liv^e her soul straight out," and so God
spoke to her through every leaf and flower and stone and
bird, and by the rolling sea and the golden sunset.
God speaks little to those who do not hear, or, hearing,
fail to do. How much the child learns straight from God
in early years! How rapidly it gains in mind and soul and
power, if it lives a loving life 'mid nature's myriad delights!
How it learns! How the school has continued to reverse
nature's processes! In nature's school the child finds its
own problems, and solves most of them unaided. It lives a
life of productive self-expression. When it goes to school
the teacher finds all its problems, and brings them to it, or
drives it to them. Its self-expression ceases, and it is
forced to try to express and execute the idea of the teacher.
Thus the power of problem recognition, that should have
grown to be its greatest mental and spiritual power, be-
comes dwarfed through inactivity, and the child's intense
interest in fresh knowledge is lost because it is not allowed
to seek it independently and because the teacher's prob-
lems are suggested by an adult mind, and are therefore
inevitably unsuited to the mind of the child.
The kindergarten was designed by Froebel to continue
the same involuntary attention, and to develop the same
individuality in problem recognition, and the same self-ex-
pression which the child enjoyed in nature's school, where
it was happy and developed rapidly and definitely. The
kindergarten is therefore an essential basis for the school,
because it continues the productive self-developing proc-
esses of natural growth, and is not merely an ag-^ncy for
KINDERGARTEN AND PUBLIC SCHOOL. 755
mind storing, but for strengthening the aspiring powers of
humanity.
It may be objected that school boards are too ignorant
regarding the true ideals of education to be trusted with the
management of the kindergarten. It is unfortunately true
that very few members of school boards yet understand
kindergarten aims or methods; but granting this, I still
maintain that school boards can do most to propagate kin-
dergarten principles. They have control of money, and can
therefore provide the best kindergartners, and the finest
kindergarten rooms, equipped with the most convenient ap-
pliances, and supplied with all necessary materials for the
work of the children. They have, or should have, the wisest
and best-trained men and women as superintendents and
principals and directresses; and the training of the race
should be guided by the ablest men and women in any. de-
partment of the teaching profession. It is gratifying to
know that most superintendents have now grown wise
enough to know that they should not at once set to work
to modify the kindergarten to their own notions.
We must not intrust the kindergarten to private enter-
prise alone. The supervision in private kindergartens is
weaker than in public schools, with very few exceptions.
There will always be plenty of room for private enterprise
before the school age has been reached. There is a great
field for individual effort in the reformation of the proc-
esses of training and growth before children go to school.
All such effort will be of benefit to the school. It is a
hopeful sign that wealthy people are becoming wise enough
to try to obtain trained kindergartners for governesses.
They will soon learn that the social natures of children
need culture under improved conditions, and small groups
of families will engage kindergartners to direct the growth
of their children during their most susceptible period, a
time when they are now usually neglected or subjected to
conditions that dwarf or misdirect their energies.
It has been said that no organic union is possible be-
tween the public school and the kindergarten, because the
756 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
school is not ready for the union. "You cannot weld two
pieces of iron so long as one of them is cold," is the objec-
tion. The public school may be cold and formal; too often
it is so; the remedy is to make the school as warm as the
kindergarten. Unity of purpose will soon bring unity of
plan, and revelation of truth in process. What a revolution
has been effected during the last ten years in the ideals and
methods of the schools, through the better comprehension
of kindergarten principles! In order to make the organic
union perfect, primary teachers should be trained in kinder-
garten principles and processes at the normal schools.
School men and women have learned more than they
are conscious of from the kindergarten. At first they
learned in many cases resistingly; now they are nearly all
sympathetic. They have learned to study the child, — a
very modern study, — to respect the child's individuality
and recognize spontaneity without surrendering control; to
know that enlarging and defining power is the best work of
the school, and that the amount of remembered knowledge
cannot be a true test of human growth in mental power;
and to, value play as an agency of great educative influence,
physically, intellectually, and morally. Some teachers even
yet think that the advocates of play as a valuable means of
education, mean that play should become a substitute for
work; while others fear that the child who has been trained
to play will never like to work. Both classes are wrong.
Richter gave the philosophical answer to such objections
when he said: "To teach by play is not to spare the child
exertion or to relieve him of it, but to awaken in him a pas-
sion which forces on him and renders easy the strongest ef-
fort." Play is the work of childhood. It is the greatest
agent in coordinating the different energies of the brain.
It develops a tendency to work, and cultivates in the ener-
getic player the physical force and the characteristic ag-
gressive spirit that enjoys work and accomplishes mighty
deeds.
But perhaps the best lessons the schools have learned
from the kinderg-artens are those connected with the disci-
KINDERGARTEN AND PUBLIC SCHOOL. 75/
pline and management of children; that love is the strong-
est stimulus and the greatest controlling force in the world;
that coercive and autocratic discipline necessarily dwarfs
character; that obedience should not involve subserviency,
and that all discipline is evil that checks spontaneity and
prevents the freest development of the spirit of individual
liberty as the foundation of personal responsibility and re-
sponsive cooperation.
Toronto.
yy^ x^ ;^ ;^ 7r^ 7r^ /r\^ 7r^
HOW CAN WE ACQUIRE A BETTER APPRECIA-
TION FOR TRUE ART?
II.
WALTER S. PERRY.
THE mistake too frequently made in manual train-
ing in our country is in the treatment of manual
training as synonymous with mechanical training.
Aside from mechanical training our students
should be taught to know what constitutes beautiful form.
This should be taught in the drawing-room, and the appli-
cation of these principles should be made in all work in
wood and metal.
A director of one of the strongest manual training
schools in France states: "You (Americans) put mechan-
ical work into your manual training; zee put art and a
knowledge of ioym into ours." All this can be accom-
plished, and accuracy of expression will lose nothing as an
important feature in any manual training course.
The simple fact that manual training is designed simply
to enlarge the scope of general school education, and that
this should include art. education also, is often overlooked,
and the ultimate aim of the training is forgotten. It is not
manual dexterity; it is not an absence of manual skill from
which we are suffering at the present time. Our wonderful
inventions and our knowledge of construction in wood,
stone, and metal show what the American people are capa-
ble of doing; but it is the absence of art feeling in the arti-
san which robs our work of that quality so essential to
pleasure and profit.
My third proposition is, "We should elevate the work
in the art schools that true art training may go hand in
hand with elementary drawing, that the majority of students
may be brought to an appreciation of art even if they do
A BETTER APPRECIATION OF ART. 759
not remain long in the schools and do not become skilled
in execution."
It is a fact, and a matter often commented upon, that the
great majority of students in our art schools develop little
appreciation for true art. They enter the schools, are di-
rected to draw from blocked heads and feet, and then are
left largely to shift for themselves. They drift on for a year
or two years, and if they possess considerable ability their
work in time is recognized, and they are advanced to higher
classes. The larger number, however, after spending a year
or two years in study, drift away. Their drawing has given
them simply a slight training of the eye and hand. Very
little has been done to educate them in art, and they have
little or no appreciation of its true value.
We sometimes hear Michael Angelo, Raphael, and
others spoken of as the artists of the Rc?imssa?ice, as if
throtigh their work art was brought out of chaos to perfec-
tion, all at one stroke of genius; but unless the people
themselves had appreciated the work of these artists, unless
they had felt the influences which dated back to the time
of Dante and Giotto, there would have been no opportunity
for them.
A revival in art always goes hand in hand with a revival
in literature; and art cannot widely exist except in an age
of intellectual strength. Art has never stood out by itself
and for itself alone. It has at no time reached far above
the people. There is no question but what Phidias gained
his inspiration through the writings of Homer. The people
themselves must have had the highest conception of the
ideal. It is of no use to talk about educating the artist to
elevate the people. What we have to do is to educate the
people in order to give the artist a chance. It has been
well said that the self-supporting artist must live in his own
time; he cannot live ahead of it. Many an artist has been
forced, in order to meet the common needs of life, to drag
his art down to the commonplace, that it may find a ready
market; and as a result, his creative ability becomes a lost
feature. Therefore much more should be done for the
760 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
student in the elementary classes of the art school. Those
who are soon to drift out, and who have failed to carry their
work to a point where they may justly assume the title of
artist, should be educated in the art of the past and present,
and be led to appreciate that which forms good composi-
tion, good drawing, and good color. They should also learn
to know the relation which thought bears to composition.
In a word, they should be led to look above the common-
place, and to know that art is something more than tcch-
niqiie, something more than imitation. While no less em-
phasis should be placed upon tecJiniquc, more should be
laid upon composition. It is a great mistake to allow
students to draw most miscellaneous objects that possess
little in form or in outline which is of an elevating charac-
ter. Objects should not be thrown together simply to give
practice in drawing and color.
There is an art school in close contact with an art mu-
seum which displayed, a short time ago at its annual exhi-
bition, drawings of most commonplace objects and ugly
compositions. Scarcely a single element of beauty entered
therein. All these things have their influence, and their
influence is to degrade rather than to uplift. If, on the
other hand, we make composition as regards form, propor-
tion, color, and outline, of greater importance in every
grade of work, and require the pupils at all times to con-
sider these things very carefully, the tendency will be in a
better direction. Everything, in order to be of any value,
must give evidence of thought. Van Dyke says: "The ex-
pression will never live unless it is the embodiment of
thought. If the history of the past centuries teaches any-
thing, it is that nothing will last that has not the enduring
substance of thought." Is it possible to expect a student of
an art school to go on for years, giving little attention to
matters requiring thought, devoting his entire time to tech-
nique, and then all at once to show creative ability in his
work? On the other hand, thought must enter into his
earliest efforts; every drawing, every sketch, every paint-
ing, and everything he does, should be the embodiment of
A BETTER APPRECIATION OF ART. 761
thought, and contain some element of beauty. A picture is
beautiful only when it gives back a sensation of beauty; and
that sensation depends not alone upon the education of the
artist, but upon the observer's education and interpretation
of art.
My fourth point is to the effect that we should elevate
the character of the public art exhibitions. There is too
much that is coarse and oftentimes vulgar that finds its way
into our public exhibition halls, while there is far too much
of the commonplace. There is too much which stands for
realism and nothing else. Our artists, while searching for
the utmost power of tccJmique, should reach beyond realism,
and give expression to beauty and to the ideal. It is an un-
fortunate sign in the growth and development of art when
prizes are awarded for teclmiqiie alone. These pictures
oftentimes do not give the beholder one single uplifting
thought, but descend so low beyond the commonplace as
to be almost vulgar in conception. We can only lift the
people to a higher appreciation of art when all of our pub-
lic exhibitions and our art school exhibitions are of such a
character as to lift the people above the commonplace
things about them, and lead them to look constantly for a
higher type of beauty than that which they have known be-
fore.
It is idle to speak of art as a civilizing influence, and as
an important element in that which is best in man's nature,
if we give countenance to commonplace pictures, to pic-
tures of brutality and gross realism, and if our art schools
make use of ugly materials, employ ugly models, and culti-
vate an indifference to objects of beauty. So long as there
is trouble at the fountain, so long will the people possess a
vitiated taste.
We can but rejoice, however, at the enormous strides
made in American art in the past few years. The World's
Columbian Exposition certainly offered to every patriotic
American interested in art the most abundant cause tor en-
couragement. In architecture, sculpture, and painting, in
composition, selection, and technique, we find so much for
762 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
encouragement that words fail in giving expression to our
thoughts.
My fifth proposition assumes that a greater effort should
be made to start many small museums. Large museums
often accomplish but a fraction of the good they should, as
they are away from the common people, are not easy of
access at seasonable times, and their contents are unintelli-
gible, owing to the lack of proper means of description and
explanation.
It is not enough to put objects where they can be seen
by the people; the people must be taught how to see and
to discriminate wisely. Let one go into a large museum
like the Metropolitan in New York, and begin to explain to
a few friends or students the plaster casts and archeolog-
ical remains, and see how quickly a little crowd of hitherto
idle sight- sfeers will gather about him and become eager lis-
teners. A lady once said to me, "I have been in here sev-
eral times, and I never knew ■ before what these things
mean;" and the request was made that she and a friend
might be allowed to listen. The director in chief of the art
exhibit at the World's Fair has done more, perhaps, than
anyone else in aiding the people to a just appreciation of
the contents of a museum. This museum, controlled by
himself, has been made not simply an exhibition gallery,
but the class room and lecture room for small companies of
people interested in special lines of work. There artisans
eager to learn and only waiting for a guiding hand and a
word of explanation have been placed upon the right road
for study, investigation, and art culture. Others have taken
their places at appointed times, and thus the good work
has grown.
It is not necessary to raise a great amount of money and
acquire a large permanent collection in order to start such
a work. Loan exhibitions of the best of material can be
secured to illustrate the various industries, and some one
employed to do something more than to sit at the door and
sell catalogues. A collection of photographs illustrating
the history and development of architecture, sculpture, and
A BETTER APPRECIATION OF ART. 763
painting should be shown, not, in one place in a great city
like Chicago, but in many places. In each place a descrip-
tion in the form of a short lecture could be given afternoon
and evening, and thus the people directed to study in an
intelligent manner the collection at hand. Liberty to ask
questions should be granted. It is not the large company
to be sought after, but the small, earnest number who will
go out and make their influence felt upon others. At one
time I gave a talk upon Art and Design in Common Things,
and several years after I met a lady who, up to the time of
the short illustrated lecture, had no intelligent knowledge
of good design; and she said: "I have never bought any
useful object for the home since I heard your talk, but what
I have thought of its fitness and adaptation to purpose."
Exhibits can quite easily be arranged for many specific
purposes. At one time it may be photographs of historic
architecture; at another time, photographs of the world's
great paintings and works of sculpture; at another time,
objects in wood and metal, glass, etc. When a person be-
comes interested in a special subject the attendant should
be able to direct him to the study of some interesting book
to be secured from the public library, and thus encourage
further study.
This proposition for the starting of small museums and
making our present museums of greater value, I have dis-
cussed last, but as one of great value. It is hardly neces-
sary to multiply words, but so strong is my belief in the
good that can thus be done, that I trust it may receive spe-
cial consideration.
In conclusion, allow me to say: Let us do more for true
art education in public education. Let us make manual
training none the less practical, but more aesthetic in re-
sults. Let us elevate the elementary work of art schools,
and elevate the character of our public exhibitions; and
finally, let us give every encouragement for the establish-
ment of small museums on the Chicago Hull House princi-
ple of doing good.
RESOLUTIONS
Presented Before the Educational Department of
THE World's Congress Auxiliaries, July 23,
1893, at the Art Institute, Chicago.
IDA M. condit.
AT the last and joint meeting of the art, manual
training, and kindergarten sections of the educa-
tional congress of the World's Congress Auxil-
iaries, which was given over to the discussion of
"What shall the Public Schools Teach?" the following arti-
cles were read but not passed upon, owing to an arrange-
ment agreed upon by President Bonney, that for obvious
reasons no resolutions could be offered before any of the
congresses. These articles, although not prepared for the
occasion, answered the useful purpose of summarizing the
sentiments of the speaker^ and preserving into some form
the idea that is shared by so many, of the necessity of re-
form in our system of popular education.
Believing that it will contribute to the general welfare
that the program of studies and exercises in the public
schools be revised to meet the requirements of new exigen-
cies and conformed to the rights of the people under the
constitution, the following propositions are suggested as
fundamental, the adoption of which would bring about a
great educational reform:
First, that the kindergarten be made a part of the public school sys-
tem, admitting children from the age of four to seven years;
Serond, that manual training be recognized as construction work, to
continue the occupations of the kindergarten, and extend throughout
the reni'^ining years of the school course in its various applications;
Third, that the study of form, drawing, and color, as agents of incal-
culable value in their high and ennobling influences in the lives of our
children and youth, be one of the leading features in our public schools
and colleges;
RESOLUTIONS. 765
Fo%irth, that reading be made a literary study from the earliest years
of the child's school life; that he may have an intelligent view of the en-
tire life, growth, and development of mankind as continued in literature;
that we recognize the demands of the true economy of education, which
crowds back into the most elementary period all that is merely designed
to familiarize children with the appearance of words; also that public
libraries be established, and an intimate relationship between the library
and school encouraged in every way;
Fifth, that instruction in elementary science and natural history be
commenced in the first grades of the primary schools, and continued
throughout the curriculum;
Sixth, that music of a high order be taught in all the grades, for the
sake of its humanizing qualities and for the development of the ees-
thetic side of the child's life;
Seventh, that a graduated commercial course be arranged, placing
the study of arithmetic on a practical basis, giving such a knowledge of
the various phases of commercial instruction as will enable pupils to
enter business life on leaving school, without being compelled to take a
special course in a business college;
Eighth, that an outline of common law be included in the public
school course, in order that the coming generations may have such
knowledge of law as will make them intelligent upon certain points re-
lating to property and citizenship, conducing to a truer and deeper pa-
triotism;
Ninth, that high schools have a better-graduated and more symmet-
rical course of instruction, — one that will bring them into a closer, more
harmonious, and more sequential relationship with the primary and
grammar schools and university;
Tenth, that such text-books be used as shall best conduce to the reali-
zation of the aims of these resolutions;
Eleventh, that any revision of our course of study be made as univer-
sal throughout the country as the varymg conditions in different locali-
ties will allow, so that a uniform course of instruction may be maintained
in our institutions of learning, from the kindergarten to the university,
seeking to prevent that waste of time and energy which moving from
«ne locality to another, or from one department to another, now in-
volves;
Twelfth, that a committee consisting of three (3) members from each
state be appointed by the chairmen of the various departments of the
educational congresses, for the purpose of arousing public opinion upon
this most important subject, to confer with those who have the conduct
of educational affairs, to collect data and formulate a program of school
studies and exercises in accordance with preceding suggestions, and to
consider the whole subject of education.
In July, 1891, these resolutions were submitted to the
Vol. 6-48.
766 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
executive committee of the National Educational Associa-
tion, which held its session in Toronto. No word from this
source ever reached the author, but a correspondence with
well-known educators previous to this date indicated that
thoughtful, progressive men and women were trending in
the same direction, and that great sympathy and interest
were felt concerning radical changes in the educational sys-
tem of the United States.
The fundamental elements of these propositions deal
with education entirely from the standpoint of the child.
The commercial standpoint is not to be considered, neither
that which conserves to the interests of any division of the
school system, be it either secondary schools or universities.
No system should be projected that does not contain germs
of the ideal. We must continue to aim at the stars, though
we know our arrows will only reach the house tops. The
child must be educated for its own sake. We have perhaps
been thinking too much of the state and society; if the chil-
dren are given the right sort of an education the state and
society will take care of themselves.
The kindergarten has passed beyond the plane of experi-
ment; so has hand training in all its variations. Day by
day experiments are being made and educational truths dis-
covered, all tending to the better development of the child,
to the making of free men and women in the sense of holy
living. The tendency of modern educators to consider the
child is beautifully illustrated in the report of the confer-
ence on "Nature study," of the committee of ten, which
states at the beginning that "It must be remembered that
the primary object of nature study is not that the children
may get a knowledge of plants and animals. TJic first pur-
pose of the ivork is to interest them in nature. "
The old adage, "There is no royal road to le5,rning," is a
startling revelation of the prevailing ignorance of child life.
Education should be as free, joyous, and spontaneous as the
growth of flowers and trees; it never should be a task nor
a wearisome grind. All subjects which are the occasions of
mental development are related. There is a continuity
RESOLUTIONS. 767
which must be recognized and preserved. Obeying this law
of continuity, withholding no good thing in the culture of
child life, we shall in a not far distant future have solved
many of the problems which so sorely vex our nation to-
day. It is the highest wisdom to educate all children. It
is worth the while of true educators to strive to evolve a
system which will be a logical succession of related steps
from the child garden to the university; to urge the organi-
zation of departments for the training of teachers, and the
establishing of state universities rather than those operated
through private enterprise.
A NATURE SEER.
REBECCA PERLEY REED.
To the shade of the great Black Forest
The little Thuringian lad
Crept away with his lonesome childhood,
To Nature's heart, and was glad.
She gathered him close, till its pulsings
^e felt as his very own;
She brooded the child left motherless,
With a love he had never known;
Through her lips the infinite Father
Spoke to his inner ear.
His comrades were flowers, and birds, and trees,
And mountain torrents clear.
The wondrous laws of the universe,
God's methods of growth and grace,
Wrought subtly within his tender soul
For the uplift of the race.
At price of his own unchildish youth,
Whose birthright was early lost,
This strange, shy lad won his talisman,
And grudged not its heavy cost. .
From the broad, grand stretch of the hillside,
And the silence of starry skies,
He turned to his kindergarten
And the light of infant eyes.
" Come, let us live with the children!
Let us lead them in God's own ways.
In a purposeful growth of body and soul.
Through the life of their happy plays;
Let us set their sweet wild, wandering song
To the harmony of heaven;
Let us guide the active little hands
To creative use, God-given;
A NATURE SEER. 769
Let US win all fire, authority, grace,
Of will, of conscience, of heart.
To gracious, spontaneous function through
The body in every part!"
So spake this prophet of later days,
When, a half a century old.
He gathered the little children,
And his quaint, sweet stories told.
None of his very oivii were they,
Yet a tvorld-wide fatherhood
Crowns the gentle Seer forevermore,
As the benison of God.
And surely of human teachers
Has risen no wiser than he,
Since the Lord Christ blessed the children
On the shores of Galilee!
Mikvaukcc, April, iSg4.
THE GARDEN OF THE PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL
HOUSE.
ELIZABETH HARRISON.
ONE of "the importations from Germany" which
America could well afford to make is the idea
that a kindergarten is not complete without a
garden, a real, out-of-doors garden. Nowhere in
the land of Froebel did I find a kindergarten without its
little plot of ground, w^here the children put their own seeds
into the earth, watered their own seedlings, tended their
own plants, plucked their own blossoms, and in the autumn
gathered and stored their own multiplied seeds. Thus they
come into vivid and real contact with nature, and her mys-
terious growth and subtle power of reproduction.
The importance of this experience can hardly be over-
estimated, especiall}' for our little "town-imprisoned" chil-
dren. It means not only increased power of observation,
habits of industry, love of open-air life, admiration for the
beautiful, and the realization of process or transformation,
but it brings with it that gentle feeling of reverence for the
unknown, thus leading to the looking "through nature up
to nature's God!" until the heart realizes that man's part in
the universe is after all only a small part, and that beyond,
above, around him everywher-e, is the great unseen power
which produces the growth, unfolds the life of the plant,
and causes, with unfailing' certaint}% every herb to bring
forth fruit after its own kind. Nowhere did I see this beau-
tiful garden-thought so well carried out as at the Pestalozzi-
Froebel House, in Berlin. The work of this kindergarten
training center is under the patronage of the Empress Fred-
ricka, and under the immediate supervision of Frau Henri-
etta Breyman Schrader, a niece of Froebel's. The house
itself is a large three-story house in the heart of the city.
PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL GARDEN. 771
The garden occupies most of the inner court found in all
German houses. First there is a clean, smooth, stone-paved
space where the children, in pleasant weather, play their
games. Then ccrmes the sand yard, where they are allowed
to dig and mold and pat to their hearts' content, in perfect
freedom, though a kindergartner is always present during
the free-play period, and often suggests a better way of
carrying out the child idea, begun in eager, creative mood.
Next comes the garden proper, sepa;rated from this free-
play ground by a neat low fence and a suggestive gate.
Never will I forget the first sight I had of this garden!
I was almost intoxicated with delight. The realization that
my wildest dreams had become veritable facts, here in this
heart of the humdrum city of a million people, made my
head whirl, and I scarcely knew whether I was in the body
or out of the body during the next half hour, as I walked
around the most perfectly kept garden I ever saw. Here
was the tall linden tree, giving, with its spreading branches,
the play of light and shadow on the smooth-shaven grass-
plot. Here, surrounding the majestic trunk of the tree, was
the rustic summerhouse, with its hospitable seats and con-
venient round table. Here were the well-tended little gar-
dens, one for each child, if I remember rightly, all blooming
with bright flowers. Here were the hardy annuals, — lilacs
filling the air with delicious perfume, rosebushes bendvng^
with their pink and crimson blossoms. Here, too, were
currant bushes glistening with their half-hidden, ruby-like
fruit. Gooseberries, and I remember not what other kinds
of small fruit, here gave to the child a new meaning of the
words concerning the unripe fruit in Froebel's Tasting Song.
The whole was so skillfully arranged, that it would de-
light the eye of a landscape gardener, and yet was contained
in the necessarily circumscribed courtyard of a city block.
The high brick fence which separated this particular por-
tion of ground from the neighboring houses was nearly hid-
den by the rich green covering of a vine, adding grace and
beauty to the whole scene. Think of children coming each
day from homes of dirt and dinginess, from streets bare
772 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
and dusty, to such a spot of freshness and loveliness! And
yet the whole of this treasure spot has not been told. Back
of the garden, divided from it by a wire fence, was a
chicken yard, where the children could watch the mother
hens brooding over and tenderly providing for and protect-
ing their downy offspring, until the little souls were stirred
with the truths symbolized by nature in her varied manifes-
tations. Can we not find generous men and women in our
midst who will give to the children of Chicago and all our
great cities this same priceless boon?
BETWEEN THE LINES OF THE REPORT OF
THE COMMITTEE OF TEN.
JOSEPHINE C. LOCKE.
THIS Report is in many wa}'s a great advance over
the useless discussions and arguments that have in
the past formed so large a part of the mission of
the National Educational Teachers' Association.
There is an acknowledgment to be found between its
lines, that "inward striving" is more than external perfec-
tion, and a direct admission, on page 15 of the Report, that
instruction in modern arithmetic is a painful failure. "As
things are now, the high school teacher finds in pupils fresh
from the grammar schools no foundation of elementar}'
mathematical conceptions outside of arithmetic, and no
knowledge of geometrical' forms." What a confession,
when we consider the fetich worship, and the multitude of
human sacrifices that have been offered at the shrine of this
chief idol of the common school system!
Time spent on memorizing figures, idle speculations, and
analytical abstractions has resulted to the owner only in a
gymnastic exercise of the brain, divorced from thought
power and the realm of ideas.
Hence the committee recommend "that the course in
arithmetic be at once abridged and enriched; abridged by
omitting entirely those subjects which perplex and exhaust
the pupil, and enriched by a greater number of exercises in
simple calculations and in the solution of concrete prob-
lems," and "that instruction in concrete geometry, with nu-
merous exercises, be introduced into the grammar school.
During the early years the instruction might be given infor-
mally in connection with drawing." "It should occupy one
hour a week for at least three years. From the outset the
pupil should be required to express himself by drawing and
modeling. He should learn to estimate by the eye, and to
Vol. 6-49.
774 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
measure lengths with some degree of accuracy." We owe
grateful thanks to the Committee of Ten for this partial
recognition of drawing and modeling as a means of expres-
sion.
In English it is recommended "that the study of formal
grammar shall not be taken up before the thirteenth year;
that spelling shall be learned in connection with every sub-
ject studied, and not from a spelling book; that reading
books shall possess literary merit and that they shall be dis-
carded at the beginning of the seventh year, and that the
pupil shall thereafter read literature."
History is to begin with the tenth year, and the first two
years shall be devoted to mythology and biography.
Altogether the Report is very significant of the trend of
modern thought.
In the recommendation concerning the myth one detects
an unconscious admission of the eternal verities of art; it is
the acknowledgment of the imagination as the storehouse
of the experiences of the race, and of the child mind as in-
tuitive, capable of perceiving and knowing itself through
the race consciousness.
Now the myth is neither science nor fact, but it includes
both; it is more than literal history and greater than the
details of biography. In its mirror facts are seen in their
relations and processes in their outcome. The accidental
and the phenomenal are subordinated to the abiding and
inward real; facts stand redeemeci from their. bareness, and
science is lifted out of its crudeness. For the myth is the
abode of poetry and fantasy; it appeals to the axiomatic
rather than the intellectual mind; it is the ^airy cobweb of
the origin of all things. Without the myth, the legend, or
folk-lore story, there were no great art expression in stat-
uary or painting. Mythology may well be termed the
mother of art.
This recognition of mythology is very inclusive on the
part of the committee, and by intelligent teachers can be
made to uncover a wellspring of life.
Similarly, in the Report of the Committee on Nature
REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 775
Study is found an undercurrent of convergent lines. Mere
intellectual knowing for knowing's sake is to be subordi-
nated to feeling and a sympathetic attitude of mind. The
Report reads: "That the primary object of nature study is
not that children may get a knowledge of plants and ani-
mals; the first purpose of the work must be to interest them
in nature as a %vholi\ and not merely in a part — as the seeds,
the leaves, or the flower. No book shall be put into the
hands of pupils. The \Vork shall consist of a careful study
of typical plants; and this study of the type should not be-
come a study of isolated — hence barren — facts." Thanks
again to the committee, for this unconscious recognition of
art principles!
It is evident from the foregoing, that science is realizing
that the human being is before all mathematical data and
information; attitude of mind, sympathy, responsiveness,
living interest — these all come first, and must precede mere
learning; in other words, nature is for the child a vehicle to
be used for his unfoldment, and mind has higher uses than
that of an encyclopedia for natural phenomena.
The Report continues: "The omission of music, drawing,
and elocution from the programs offered by the committee
was not intended to imply that these subjects ought to
receive no systematic attention. If the recommendations
of the conference were carried out, some of the omitted
subjects would be better dealt with under any one of the
above programs than they are now under familiar high
school and academy programs, in which they figure as sep-
arate subjects. Thus drawing does not appear as a separate
subject; but the careful reader of the Conference Reports
will notice that drawing, both mechanical and free-hand, is
to be used in the study of history, botany, zoology, astron-
omy, meteorology, physics, geography and physiography,
and that the kind recommended by the conference is the
tnost useful kifid, — namely, that which is applied to record-
ing, describing, and discussing observations." Personally I
am very grateful to the committee for these recommenda-
tions, and quite agree with them that drawing, as drawing,
7/6 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
would be much better taught in all schools — primary,
grammar, and academic — than it is at present; for such a
use of drawing would necessitate a larger education on the
part of both the specialist and the regular teachers. To
tcch/iiqjie and graphic power the former would have to add
familiarity with literature and geography, etc., while the
latter would be obliged to prepare themselves in at least
the rudimentary principles of linear representation.
A breaking down of the dividing lines between the spe-
cial and the regular teachers means increase of human sym-
pathy and mutual recognition between both parties. It
does not mean the abolition of existing situations, but the
elevation of all teachers and teachings to a wider and more
harmonious base, to a fuller and richer consciousness of life.
What, then, are the shortcomings of this Report? It is
not that it does not provide for form study and drawing as
a training for "eye and hand," and as the subject is under-
stood and accepted by the majority of people. Does not
the Report distinctly emphasize "the study of things and
phenomena by direct contact"? Has not all the ground —
educational, ethical, orthodox — been covered? President
Baker thought not; he felt the lack of something more, and
his inner wisdom caused him to present a minority report
which cannot be too carefully studied.
Says President Baker: "The training of observation,
memory expansion, and reasoning is a very important part
of education, but is not all of education. The imagination,
the rich possibilities of the emotional life, the education of
the will through ethical ideas and correct habits, all are to
be considered in a scheme of learning. 'Idca/s must be added
to the scientific method^ This last sentence is one of infinite
expansion, and is the keynote to the limitations of the
Report.
A philosopher and a lawyer has left it written as the
result of his observation of life, "Whether there be tongues,
they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall van-
ish away But now abideth faith, hope, love." Faith,
hope, love — these are the ultimate and final ideals; they
REPORT OF COMMITTEE. ']']']
are not to be intellectually acquired, nor physically devel-
oped, but spiritually attained; and their attainment is char-
acter. Training in morals may or may not include them;
discipline of the will may or may not include them; but
these ideals felt in the heart include all things. The letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Shall not these ideals
,have a place in a scheme of learning? Shall not a commit-
tee who confessedly acknowledge the inadequacy and fail-
. ure of present educational theories and appliances, consider
them? The committee has done nobly, but the committee
limited itself from the first by the nature of its organization.
We must not misjudge or misunderstand the committee.
They have worked to the extent of their experience; they
have done the very best they knew. The Report is offered
in absolute good faith that the remedies suggested will cure
the disease.
But the student of history must ask, Have not these
receipts all been tried? Not, of course, on the large scale
of a common school system; but a sufficient number of
individuals have practiced them in their lives to give us
some idea of their success. William Wordsworth, one who
lived in intimate fellowship and sweet converse with nature,
left it on record — "We live by admiration, faith, and love."
Dearly as he loved and appreciated nature, over and above
her he places the eternal ideals. John Stuart Mill was a
master linguist before ten years of age; he read both Latin
and Greek; at six he was teaching Latin to a little sister.
Trained to self-discipline, he yielded a severe obedience to
the moral law; few lives have more nobl}' measured up to
the Mosaic requirements. Yet no one can' peruse his biog-
raphy without a feeling of intense sympathy for a man who
realized at the close of his career that his intellectuality had
been purchased with -too dear a price: In his desolation he
doubts even the eternal verities. Darwin and Huxley, sin-
cere and earnest men, have left it written between the lines
of their memoirs that had they their lives to live over again
they would find an hour each day for the cultivation of the
imagination, — for poetry and fantasy and art. Carlyle, from
7/8 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
behind his philosophy and the rich depths of a literary life,
breathes a sigh for the days of childhood, that he may re-
construct his problem.
The testimony is a unit. Had these great souls their
lives to live over again, they would have cultivated more
the spiritual side, the idealistic side of life. They would
have put it first, and not last. Shall not the greater include^
the less? does a development of the spiritual necessitate
the production of an inferior physical and intellectual be-
ing? As education has never made the experiment, she
cannot answer the question. I am perfectly aware that'spir-
ituality cannot be legislated for, nor will it come through
decrees of authority. The desperate efforts now being
made in the French public schools to inculcate morality is
its own contradiction. But there is a law by which the Di-
vine ever worketh; it is the law of recognition. God is
limited only by man's recognition of him.
The Report of the Committee of Ten contents itself
with the recognition of the physical and intellectual nature
of the child. It does not take into consideration that he is
preeminently a spiritual being. Education apart from the
teachings of Froebel has not recognized the child as a spir-
itual entity; and until it does, the waste in the instruction
which the committee are so honestly seeking to rectify
must continue.
Spirituality is not religion; neither is it morality. It is
greater than either, and includes both; -but it is dependent
for manifestation upon the recognition of its own ideals. It
cannot be developed through the recognition of purely in-
tellectual or physical ideals. Education has yet to ask the
questions. What are the altruistic studies? Are there altru-
istic methods of instruction? Do conditions count? Who
or what is it that determines the atmosphere of a school-
room? Does the atmosphere affect the child?
With the novel pleading for idealism, the drama plead-
ing for idealism, religion pleading for idealism, surely edu-
cation must at least suggest it! But the omission is a per-
REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 779
fectly consistent one, when we realize the make-up of the
committees.
The committee limited themselves; they did not, in the
formation of their organization, admit the sum total of the
experience of even the common schools. Was it too much
to expect that considering the hour of history, so commonly
alluded to as ''le fin dc siecle," that they should have held
themselves open to all truth, to light from every quarter?-'
Have the studies of psychic science and mental phenomena
nothing to suggest of undiscovered regions in child mind,
and of means by which they may be entered, which would
have helped the committees? At least let us inquire why,
seeing nine-tenths of the teaching force employed in the
public schools are women, — why they were not repre-
sented in a due proportion on the committees. Have
women like Ella F. Young, Louisa P. Hopkins, May Wright
Sewall, Clara Conway, Anna Brackett, Alice Freeman Palmer,
Mary Dana Hicks, not to mention hosts of others, no expe-
rience to contribute by which the committees could have
been enlightened and enriched? This being so, it was but
natural, under the circumstances, that "ideals" were omitted.
In their organization the Committee of Ten included
nine subcommittees of ten members each; eight of these
committees, those that directly considered the studies of
the common school, were composed entirely of men. Upon
the ninth, the Committee on Greek, one woman — Professor
Abbie Leach — was appointed. No thinking person will for
a minute construe this omission as a slight offered to
woman; but even as a straw indicates the way the wind
blows, so this partial and one-sided representation indicates
the masculine limitations under which the Reports were
prepared. It is nonsense to say that the man understands
the woman sufficiently to represent her and her ideas; it is
equally nonsensical to say that men have the same sympa-
thy with children that women have, and therefore they are
perfectly capable of deciding all questions concerning the
child mind without her. No! the omission of broad, high-
minded, thoughtful women from the subcommittees is an
780 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
omission of omissions, which even President Baker's minor-
ity report does not compensate for.
Of course the men didn't mean it; of course they didn't.
Nobody believes they did; they simply limited their horo-
scope of light, and didn't know that they did it! The ob-
ject of this paper is to point out the fallacy of the omission
that it may not occur again. We do not believe it ever will.
The insight that is more than eyesight does not hesitate to
affirm that omitting woman, with her large experience in
the schoolroom, with her divine discontent, her restless
aspiration, and her wellspring of continuous inspiration,
accounts for the omission of idealism and the exaltation of
a-ealism in the Report. It is all the more remarkable that
this should have happened at a time when the woman is
more than ordinarily active in human affairs.
Now the woman is type and symbol of a great divine
principle yet to be revealed, that has for its object the com-
forting and freeing of humanity from its ignorance and
bondage. The enlightened nations of the past have ever
felt this, and acknowledged her as a factor in their govern-
ment and organization. Greece worshiped her as Pallas
Athene, goddess of wisdom, goddess of intelligence and
cunning craftsmanship; her glance was the sailor's joy, her
smile the hero's most prized reward. It was her presence
that glorified the Parthenon, and it was her inspiration and
guidance that lifted Greece from being a puny strip of land
to her proud position as queen of the world's intellect and
the world's art. The Romans recognized her as Minerva, —
mind, thought power, thought discernment, enlightener of
the intellect and judgment of the brain.
Pope Leo, with the far-reaching sagacity that character-
izes the actions of the Vatican, has shown that he under-
stands the age in which he lives, and the eternal fitness of
things, in his recent canonization of Joan of Arc, shciwho
left tending the sheep to lead the armies of France, who
taught skilled veterans the art of war, whose career forever
must illuminate the story of religion, history, and art. The
necessity for the woman presence, the woman ideal, was
REPORT OF COMMITTEE, 781
emphasized by the 7,000 persons who thronged Notre Dame
Cathedral onh' a few weeks ago to honor their woman
queen, — the blessed Joan. And yet education does not
perceive the significance of the situation!
Nevertheless the Report of the Committee of Ten, spite
of its limitations, its old-fashioned conservatism and cau-
tiousness, its faith in masculine methods and masculine
ideas, is prophetic of future blessings. Can it be that Pro-
fessor Abbie Leach was an afterthought? — but whether fore
or aft, it is a matter of congratulation that she appears on
the Greek Conference. Call it accident, the revenge of the
unrecognized, the irony of fate, anything you please; the
fact is, that the one woman whose presence measures the
latent possibilities of the Report re'presents the land of
Sappho and of Pindar, the land of the Venus de Milo and
the Apollo Belvedere, the land whose story is the story
of the creative imagination, told in forms of imperishable
beauty.
There she stands, a plain Anglo-American woman, with a
hint of Puritan stock in her maiden name, utterly uncon-
scious that she is the Nemesis of the hour. But reading be-
tween the lines, one catches the rhythm of the spheres, the
sweet harmony of the rounded whole, pleading to be heard.
I see it in such recommendations as that relating to the
study of history, where "Greek and Roman history with
their Oriental connections" is recommended for the grammar
grades. I ask, How is it possible to study Greek and Roman
history, especially since biography and mythology are in-
cluded, and leave out those marvelous creations that declare
how the Beautiful came from Olympus to Thessaly? Greek
history is not Greek history apart from the story of the
blue-eyed Maiden of the Parthenon, and Pericles' dream of
a federated republic, as told by the chisel of Phidias. And
Roman history cannot be told without the aid of the Arch
of Titus, the Forum, the dome and the arch, the influence
of the Etruscans, and the Greek Alexandrian school with
the Neoplatonists and their woman — Hypatia.
So after all may we not take this omission of the Re-
782 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
port of the Committee of Ten as a compliment, a magnifi-
cent tribute to the divine life that resides in woman and in
beauty, a recognition of their power to take care of them-
selves without legislation and apart from organizations?
It would seem as if the masculine, the physical and the in-
tellectual, need to be propped, defended, protected, and leg-
islated for at every turn, else they would tire out in the
struggle; but woman and beauty require no such assistance.
" They are their own excuse for being."
Pealing, the clock* of time has struck the woman's hour.
We hear it on our knees, — the hour of Idealism.
THE MOTHER WATCHING THE DEVELOPMENT
OF HER CHILD.
EMILY HUNTINGTON MILLER.
COME, my baby; come, my treasure,
Precious little one!
You are growing like a blossom
Opening in the sun.
Life, with wondrous gifts, within you
Strengthens every hour.
Mother's hand could not bestow it;
'Tis a heavenly power.
Rosy cheeks with dancing dimples.
Arms that wave and cling.
Sturdy legs that just are learning
How to stand and spring.
Hands that hold their treasures lightly.
Fingers lithe and small —
Ah, I know a man is coming
Who will use you all!
This small head, with locks so golden^
These bright laughing eyes.
Will they hide a statesman's secrets
Wonderful and wise?
These pink ears that only listen
To my cradle song.
Will they hear the world's great music,
Full, and deep, and strong?
Can I think my dainty darling.
In the world's great mart
Soon must learn to strive and labor,
Take a hero's part?
Can I think that I must guide him
So that he may find
Joy in living, and in bringing
Help to all mankind?
EDITORIAL NOTES.
The first article of the by-laws of the Kindergarten Lit-
erature Company contains the following sentence: "The
object of this association shall be the promulgating of the
theory and practice of the Froebellian philosophy, not only
in primary but in higher education."
Everyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear, is filled
with astonishment at the growth of the kindergarten work
during the past five years. Thousands of questioners are
sending us such inquiries as the following: Where can we
learn more of the kindergarten? How should one set
about it to open a kindergarten or organize an association?
Where shall we take professional training, what the ex-
pense, and how long the course? What can parents do to
give their children home training? How should a normal
school provide its teachers with practical kindergarten
knowledge and experience? What salaries should be paid
well-prepared teachers? What books would you recom-
mend for a f)edagogical library? or my six-year-old boy? —
as the case may be. How are mothers' clubs organized, and
what is meant by a study of child nature?
As an organized working body on a business basis, the
publishers of the Kindergarten Magazine are daily better
able to meet the demands of public inquiry. It is neces-
sary, because inevitable, that some central bureau should
disseminate the truths of this growing work, and keep the
varying elements and parts in mutual touch. It is equally
essential that there be a voice which can speak with intelli-
gence, conviction, and authority. This work can never be
compassed by any one individual, or by a large disconnected
class of workers. The unification of the kindergarten work,
and the equalization of standards, is a means to this end,
and will result in sound methods of child culture, which
range from the practical detail of baby's best playthings to
EDITORIAL NOTES. 785
the laws of human growth. The Kindergarten Literature
Company was organized with a view to such usefulness, and
has made itself widely known during the past year. As a
result there come streaming in from all parts of the world,
"wants" and questions of every description. Like a ques-
tioning child, a questioning world cannot be put off or
silenced. Some one must take the motherly interest and
expend the energy necessary to satisfy the searchers after
higher things.
Each and every kindergarten training center has its
share of this work to do. The demand is ever present, but
the individual is not always justified in taking the time to
furnish the supply. Nor have such always the ready data
or the organized working force necessary to do justice to
the demand. Such service must be rendered lovingly, pa-
tiently, and freely, that the rising tide of public sentiment
may sweep on with power and persuasion. The Kindergar-
ten Literature Company is a large, self-supporting bureau
of this nature, based upon the personal faith and conviction
that this movement is the lawful child of progress. The
company itself is the offspring of the movement, and em-
bodies the energy, devotion, and affection of two score of
the leading men and women in kindergarten work. Chi-
cago is an altruistic as well as commercial and geographical
center, and the Kindergarten Literature Company is one of
the potent arteries leading from the heart of this city.
The editorial rooms are in the sky parlor of one of the
architectural gems of the world, — the Woman's Temple, —
and look out over the huge city, with its surging, steaming,
propelling energy of nearly two millions. The principles
upon which every kindergarten is based, the ideals by which
every training school exists, the demonstrated faith which
has engraved the names of Pestalozzi and Froebel upon the
brow of the nineteenth century, govern and rule the busi-
ness institution known as the Kindergarten Literature Com-
pany.
The program for the substance matter of the Kinder-
786 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
GARTEN Magazine for the ensuing year is being arranged on
the symposium plan. The September number, opening
Volume VII, will be a symposium on "Songs, Plays, and
Games," to be opened and carried on by our most compe-
tent child culturists, touching the subjects from every stand-
point,— natural, practical, technical, ethical, suggestive. It
will be one of the completest compilations of thoughts and
demonstrations on this subject ever given. The article
promised for this month from the pen of Wm. T. Harris, on
the "Puppet-play" (in "Wilhelm Meister"), has necessarily
been postponed until September.
Our readers will be keenly disappointed in not finding
the two articles promised for this issue from the pens of
Francis W. Parker and Jane Addams. They were obliged
to disappoint at the last moment, being two of the most
extremely busy people in Chicago.
There will be a teachers' reading and study department
for literary and pedagogical study carried on in Volume VII
of, the Kindergarten Magazine, by prominent writers, to
begin in the September issue. The deepest consideration
will be given the needs of advanced students as well as be-
ginners. The Kindergarten Magazine has won apprecia-
tion and support during the past year such as has never been
accorded it before, and promises because of this to stand
more generously than ever for higher professional expres-
sion and work. No kindergartner of living needs and living
deeds can overestimate the good which is bound to come to
all in their work, through the unity of thought, study, read-
ing, and inspiration.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS.
Owing to the diverse and desirable individuality in every
kindergartner's work, the unification of supplies and mate-
rials can scarcely be regulated, even in a system of public
school kindergartens. One of th& test trials of the kinder-
garten and primary supervisors of city schools is the regu-
lating and estimating of supplies. If there is a doubtful
member of the school committee he is sure to become agi-
tated at each presentation of supply lists. While it is far
from the best plan to make the twenty or more kindergarten
or primary departments of a city converge to a common
program, it is necessary and just that the expense account
of each should be kept to an average minimum. It has
been repeatedly stated by training teachers in authority,
that she is the best teacher who uses fewest accessories and
simplest materials, those found by the children themselves
in nature being highly preferred.
Would it not be a practical and essential feature of every
teacher's training, if she were provided opportunities to or-
der, select, purchase, and distribute large as well as small
quantities of supplies? This work might be done on the
plan of theoretical bookkeeping. A young teacher does
not in all cases know her own mind sufficiently to name in
advance the quantity or even the style of the destructible
material she wishes to use. She does not always have a
definite plan for her color or paper-cutting work, and can-
not estimate a month in advance how many sheets her pri-
mary room of sixty children will consume. Supplies should
not be cramped, nor should the teacher's desires be elab-
orate because of ignorance of her actual needs.
It is not infrequently heard this year, that "Our work is
not what it should be, because our supplies have been re-
duced to a minimum." Almost every system of city schools
was most generously provided last year, in order that
World's Fair work might have every advantage of excellent
appearance. The pendulum has in many cases swung back,
and rigid economy in materials is demanded.
It is a fact that an original, energetic, happy teacher uses
and stocks up fewer supplies than an inefficient or imitative
788 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
teacher. As a public school worker, I wish to make an ear-
nest plea for fewer devices and more studiousness in the
elementary work. Nature studies are largely assisting in
this reform; but even these must be bounded by a consist-
ent, scientific, and healthful knowledge, not only of the
things in hand, but of the children. One supervisor of
a large city full of public kindergartens has confessed that
the directresses in charge of her schools regularly double
the quantity of supplies in filling their orders, that they
may circumvent the cutting of the list which the finance
committee requires. The teacher who knows her needs and
can make them clear to her supervisors should not find it
necessary to resort to habitual prevarication. In another
city the public school elementaries were visited. It was the
privilege of the writer to see the building, the children, the
work in session, the cloak rooms, the general appointments,
but better than all these, the supply closets of the school.
In one case was found a meager but sufficient array of per-
manent materials and an excessively large supply of perfo-
rated cards, some parquetry, and folding papers. The vis-
itor said to himself: "No doubt the teacher makes up the
bulk of her allotted time for kindergarten work, on the plan
of busy work." Another of these schools was most elab-
orately equipped with handsome supply chests. There was
an abundance of everything, but the teacher was a chronic
grumbler. The visitor was glad he did not serve as princi-
pal to that otherwise beautifully appointed school. The at-
mosphere was trying in more than a physical sense.
How can supplies be regulated, without hampering the
workers? Only by a conscientious study of school condi-
tions, including a fair estimate of children's activities.
The}' can ne\'er be regulated from the financial standpoint
only. The regulator must know methods, teachers, chil-
dren, and exigencies of the season.
In a list of supplies recently drawn up by individual
teachers, and which lies on the table before me, I find the
most remarkable differences in taste and estimates. An es-
timate committee of professional kindergartners has revised
the same to an average, and in consideration of practical
expenditure. If the average teacher uses as little consist-
ency in her ordering as have these on my list, it is not to
be wondered at that school committees and boards con-
demn the kindergarten and new primary methods as too
extravagant to be practical. It is a well-known fact that
supplies have been held at high prices in the past, but the
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 789
daily increasing demand must ere long adjust them to a
more practicable basis.
The list before me records in detail the maximum quan-
tity of each article ordered, the minimum, and the commit-
tee's average estimate. (The figures are based on average
public school kindergarten conditions.)
Permanent Materials.
First Gift, 6-in. box, , boxes
Second Gift
Ttiird Gift
Fourth Gift
Tablets, square
Tablets, triangular
Sticks, plain
Sticks, colored
Slats
Scissors
Second-gift beads
Lead pencils
These are a few of the usual permanent materials found
in every kindergarten, and the discrepancies in quantity are
almost humorous. When we come to the orders for de-
structible materials, such as are transformed by the hand
work of the children into so-called "occupation work," we
find even greater contrasts:
Committee's
Maximum.
Minimum.
Estimate.
24
5
6
36
0
30
36
6
30
36
6
30
600
300
400
2,000
200
800
6,000
300
5,000
6,000
300
2,000
1,200
300
^40
36
6
30
,500,000
2,000
6,000
72
24
30
°
Committee"
Maximum.
Minimum.
Est
;imate.
Paper circles, 1,000 in
package
24
I
12
Paper squares
24
I
12
Perforating cards
1,600
100
600
Sewing cards
4,500
600
1,200
Zephyr
ozs. 32
6
6
Weaving mats
QOO
156
288
Folding paper, square
100
6
30
Clay
lbs. 100
10
50
The average estimate of the committee has by no means
reached the best proportion, but we hope to present in a
short time a well-criticised and adjusted complete list of
supplies for a public school kindergarten, with prices at-
tached. This will be published in the September number
of the Kindergarten Magazine. Further discussion on
this subject is solicited, as well as criticisms of the above
estimates.
THE TONIC SOL-FA SYSTEM.
VII.
We have found that the principal factors in transition
are/:" and ta. Another factor is the tendency of the melody
790 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
to produce 2i fccli/ig of transition. By this we mean that the
sounding of particular tones in a certain progression, espe-
cially if repeated, will produce a feeling of transition. We
find this to be caused by the formation of the interval of the
"tritone" (f-t) already described. The necessity of a
change to the sharp key is felt when the three upper tones
of this interval are sung downward, — the first tone coming
next, followed by the second tone, on which a pause may be
made, thus:
\ d : m \ s : d^ \ t : I \ s : — \ t : I \ s : — \ f : — \ s : — \\
I I i I II
The / does not sound right, and as the ear seeks at this
place a sharp tone, we alter the step to a little step, and we
findy^ satisfactory. We now interpret the phrase, as
\m:r\d: — \m:r\d: — \ h '■ \ (^ '■ —
Likewise if the first three to'nes are sung upward, followed
by the fourth tone, a return is made to the third; as
\d:m\s:m\f:s'l:—\f:s\i: — \t:—\l:~^
The / does not please the ear, which requires to hear at this
place a flat tone; and when the little step is substituted for
the greater step it will alter the phrase as follows:
\ d : r \ in : — \ d : r \ in : — / : — \ m : —
Therefore we conclude that the "tritone" is rightly termed
"anti-melodic."
The modulator as given in the last issue has the kommas,
before mentioned, marked at either side of the center col-
umn. The oval mark will be noticed above the last komma,
between s and /, to the right. It will be remembered that
between these two tones there is a smaller step; thus when
i becomes <'/, between d and r being a greater step, / of the
old key is raised a komma to become r in the new key (and
in this form may be distinguished as "lay"); when / be-
comes d we find r is lowered a komma to become /, and in
this form is distinguished as "rah," which is its correct form
when tuning with f or /. In the latter instance r is more
truly the prayerful tone; its effect when tuning with s and /
is more hopeful and rousing. The vowel sound in "rah"
corresponds with that \x\. faJi and lah.
Much might be said in regard to what science has proved
in relation to these matters, but space forbids. We accept
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 7gi
its verdict, however, feeling that much has been gained for
us which we may prove to our own satisfaction and delight
if we will. Following are examples of the different kinds
of transition:
"St. Paul's."
EY E.
\-
m
: /i 1 rt' : / s :/ \m
s
B. T.
1'"'.
^1
■.d\t^.d: r.f m : r \ d
II
"
The
Half was Never Told."
KEY F.
1-
dK,
s -.s \ — -.ta l.,s :/ 1 -
A
(Passing.)
" From Greenland's Icy Mountains."
key e-flat. (Cadence.)
\:d \)n : s \ s : I \s : — i »z (-
\ -.r \m : 1 \ s -.fc \s : —
Modulation. — The subject now to be discussed — that of
" modulation " — is another source from which much pleasure
in music is derived. The original meaning of the word has
been perverted, so that at the present time to some it has
two other significations besides the original, — i. e., "transi-
tion" and "transitional modulation." The term, however,
clearly shows to what it refers: i. e., to the relative impor-
tance given to particular tones in the scale, which is what
constitutes a mode. Modulation signifies in this method a
change of mode, from major to minor or from minor to
major. For the sake of clearness it is advisable to have
distinct terms for the different divisions of a subject. The
indefinite use of the word arose in modern harmony when
changes of key were introduced, and writers failed to give
separate names to these two processes, — change of key and
change of }node:
The predominance given to any one tone of the scale in
a tune, or part of a tune, will impart to the music its^ own
particular characteristic. This process, called "mode" (or
the manner of using the tones of the scale), was known
among all nations long before harmony was understood.
The writers of old Greek and Latin music recosfnized as
792 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
many modes as there are tones in the scale. At the present
day in Persia, India, and China, where a prejudice exists
against the harmony of the western nations, exactness is re-
quired in the use of the various modes of melody. In the
countries of the British Isles much of the old music, if prop-
erly written, as still traditionally sung, would employ one
or other of these modes. In cases where writers have
altered the old music according to the ideas of modern
usage, the people have continued to sing their melodies as
formerly, or have ceased to use them. The Greeks gave to
their modes the names of different divisions of their coun-
try; but different Greek writers applied the same name to
different modes, and these names were again altered by the
ecclesiastical writers of the sixteenth century, so that ac-
cording to the system of names last used, the DoJi mode
would be called Ionian' the Ray mode Dorian, and the LaJi
mode /Eolian.
There are two kinds of modes, — major and minor, — so
called because of the third which is formed on the Tonic
being either major or minor. Of the major modes, that of
Doll (called in ancient times the Secular mode) is almost
exclusively used in modern times and among the western
nations. Of the minor modes, the Lah mode is the only
one used in connection with harmony among the nations of
modern Europe.
There are three things which intensify the mental effect
of a tone: first, when it occurs in a cadence where it makes
a strong impression on the ear; second, when it is much
used, especialh' on the strong pulses; third, when it is ap-
proached from its Perfect Fifth-above or Fourth-below.
When predominance is given to any particular tone of the
scale, the fifth-above, which the ear recognizes as the next
important tone, is emphasized, as is also the Under-fifth.
This fact was gradually recognized by musicians, and they
found that by giving prominence to the two attendants of a
predominating tone, the importance of that tone was in-
creased. This fact forms the foundation of modal relation.
It was in the early part of the last century that the name
"Tonic" was given to the principal tone of a mode, "Domi-
nant" to its Over-fifth, and "Sub-dominant" to its Under-
fifth. Each of the remaining tones of the scale has its mode
name as well. The third is the "Mediant"; the sixth, the
"Sub-mediant" (the third, or "mediant," of the sub-domi-
nant chord); the second, the Supertonic; and the seventh,
the "Leadine" tone, also called the "Sub tonic."
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 793
That which has given to the DoJi mode its preeminence
is that its three principal chords are major, and the ear has
a fondness for a major chord. The Ray ( or more properly
Rah) mode fell into disuse because its two principal chords
were minor chords, and the alterations which were attempted
were not satisfactory. The Lali mode to all appearances
was considered even more unsatisfactory, because all its
principal chords were minor.
The first experiments at alteration to suit the ideas of
modern harmony were not acceptable; but when the third
of the dominant chord, 5, was sharpened, thus becoming sc,
so as to make a major chord and a leading tone to the tonic
lah, the principles of modern harmony decided the matter.
We have as the result the "modern" or "harmonic" minor
mode; i. e., the ancient Lali mode adapted to the modern
ideas of harmony. As the use of sc (the sharp seventh) in
the "modern" minor makes a large interval between the
tone /and itself, another tone is occasionally introduced in
place of/ in stepwise passages, called ba (pronounced bay).
This tone is not used as frequently as st\ which in the "mod-
ern" minor is called the essential seventh, and 5 the occa-
sional seventh; ba being styled the occasional sixth and f
the essential sixth. When ba is used the term "melodic" is
applied to the mode, and its use is confined to melodic
phrases.
As may be seen from the accompanying diagrams, the
old Lah mode contains all the tones of the common scale,
and it may be said to be the most satisfactory of the four
forms. The Gregorian Chant, which has won the admira-
tion of the greatest musicians, is proof of the above state-
ment, expressing, as it assuredly does, majesty and solem-
nity to a peculiar degree.
Before modern harmony was introduced, the Doric or
Ray mode was that most used in the service of the church.
Having the "prayerful" or "grave" tone for its tonic, it was
well suited to the purpose. Even now, in Wales, it still has
the preference, and tunes printed in the Lah mode are sung
in the other.
Chromatics. — An examination of the third-grade modula-
tor as given in the last article will discover in the center
column the sharps and flats of the tones of the common or
diatonic scale. It will be observed that they correspond to
the distinguishing tones, — that is, the tecs and fahs of the
keys at either side. If these altered tones are used so as not
to produce a feeling of transition, but as ornamental or for
794 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
some peculiar effect, and are followed by tones in the same
key, they are called "chromatic" tones. They are also
called "accidentals" (meaning that they are out of the
common scale), though improperly, because it is said that
there is nothing accidental in music.
All that has been given in these articles embraces the
work of the first three grades. Full explanations have not
been entered into, because the space allotted to them has
necessarily been limited. The object in writing on this
subject has been mainly to lead those who have become in-
terested in the work, or who may have been anxious to
know something of the work heretofore, to look into the
matter for themselves. If the object in view has been even
partially accomplished we feel repaid, and would recom-
mend our readers to investigate further for themselves, in
order to fully appreciate this method. — Emma A. Lord.
CRITICISM AND REMEDY.
The management of this department is grateful for all
criticisms, whether confidential or public, providing the
same are offered in the spirit of purging the work. Among
other cordial letters testifying to the appreciation of our
readers, and their warm interest, we have the following from
a progressive public school principal: "The wish enter-
tained by the writer and his kindergartner is that the maga-
zine would contain more such matter in the Practice De-
partment as is to be found on page 552 [March number],
and this to be in season, or ahead of, rather than behind,
time. You will doubtless say that you furnish any amount
of material ready to be used according to the genius and
adaptability of the individual kindergartner. Here comes
the rub. We all appreciate a good dish, but few of us are
able to prepare it, though we might be able to serve it.
Thus I too believe that you at times idealize too aerially;
that the stomachs (mental) of your guests are not always
in a condition to digest, even though their mouths (mental)
are able to receive, and they are thus forced to swallow
it. My appreciation of the kindergarten is strong, but I do
not always feel satisfied with the manner in which the little
ones are led. My notion tempts me to believe that a kin-
dergarten must be an ideal nursery, guided by a self-forget-
ting angel (woman, if you please) who is perfection so far
as a model of humanity is concerned. Not everyone get-
ting a license is fitted for this most holy work. There are
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 795
far too many with minds too narrow and spirits too weak to
bear the burden of grade teaching, who seem to feel good
enough to act as kindergarten assistants, and, after serving
sufficient time, to become kindergarten directresses. I
should like to see in this vocation fewer unmarried women,
and more mothers whose experience in rearing children has
been gq,ined in life."
As to the first criticism, we must say that the primary
aim of the management of this magazine is to provide food
for the growth of teachers, rather than methods of teaching
children. Ready-made programs are in time a detriment
rather than a growth to the teacher. We agree heartily
with the above writer in thinking practical such typical pro-
grams as reveal the actual, daily atmosphere of the kinder-
garten; but a knowledge of details does not inspire good
program work. A warm, sincere conviction in principles,
and a practical application of the same in daily living, will
generate as many programs as there are varying seasons
and occasions in the schoolroom. The editors of the Kin-
dergarten Magazine at one time had the discouraging and
chagrining experience of visiting fourteen different kinder-
gartens, both private and public, in different cities, and wit-
nessing the same program carried out in detail in each,
which had appeared in the previous numbers of the maga-
zine. • This latter provision of a happy, in itself, harmless
program had robbed, by its tempting adaptability, fourteen
workers of self-effort, hence of self-culture. The work of
every teacher, of whatever grade, demands studiousness.
There are no short roads to good work. The unknown
quantity — cliild — demands sincere, intuitive, reflective
study. Lessons are not so much "pap" administered to
children in the bulk, but are the effort of the teacher to
meet the needs of growth, child and teacher growing to-
gether. These needs can only be detected by sympathetic
study. The Kindergarten Magazine aims to give a vari-
ety of such reading as will directly and indirectly generate
this higher method of teaching. With regard to the more
mature work every teacher may know the qualities of moth-
erhood, and grow toward a partial living of the same, if she
considers them desirable and the daily effort worth while.
Mothers tJniik as well as do. They anticipate and foreknow,
hence their doing is not experimental, but wholesome and
normal. We rnost heartily agree with the above writer in
the consummation so greatly to be desired, and thank him
for saying his word to help bring it about.
796 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
FOURTH-OF-JULY GAME IN THE SUMMER KINDERGARTEN.
RED, WHITE, AND BLUE.
Soldier lad, soldier lad,
Will you tell us true?
Where are you going.
With your Red, White, and Blue?
Children small, children all,
I will answer you:
I go to serve my country.
With the Red, White, and Blue.
Soldier lad, soldier lad,
May we go with you?
We all love our country,
And the Red, White, and Blue.
Tall child, straight child,
I think I will choose you;
For I know you'll carry safely
The Red, White, and Blue.
Our children have enjoyed this song and game very
much. We play it every day. When a child chooses this
game, which they call "The Red, White, and Blue," he is
given the flag. He carries it in his left hand so that the
staff is held very straight, and his right hand falls at his
side. W^hile he marches his very best, the whole circle
addresses him in the words of the first verse. He answers
by repeating the second. We respond with the third. He
then selects a playmate. Taking him by the right hand, he
addresses him in the words of the last verse, and yields his
flag to hini and they exchange places. I must tell you how
the original MS. read: "I liopc you'll carry safely," etc.;
but one of the children revised it, saying, "I knozv you'll
carry safely." — Mary E. Sly.
world's fair TREASURES FOR THE SCHOOLS.
The attention of teachers in public and private schools,
and boards of education, is called to the opportunity
afforded by the destruction of the World's Fair Buildings,
to obtain excellent examples of architectural details in staff
work. It is possible to obtain at relatively small expense a
variety of such examples, including capitals, friezes, rosettes,
brackets, etc., which, after being cleaned and coated with
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 797
alabastine (recipe for which will be sent), will serve as use-
ful objects for purposes of art instruction. They are just
as artistic as expensive casts, and will have an added vafue
on account of their historic association with the beautiful
"White City." The Chicago public schools are securing,
through the supervisor of drawing, Miss Josephine C.
Locke, a large and invaluable collection of this material.
For a trifling outlay all the schools of the country can pos-
sess just such an assortment of these details from the build-
ings of the Columbian Exposition. Fifteen pieces for ten
dollars will be delivered on board cars at Chicago (special
prices quoted on large models). The Agency of Ornamen-
tal Staff from the World's Fair Buildings for the use of art
museums, public and private schools, also private collec-
tions, can be addressed at 455^-2 Elm street, Chicago. Man}^
schools are being supplied, and teachers write enthusiastic-
ally of their treasures.
Mr. J. Vaughan, of the London Board Schools, writes:
"What a chance for you to fill your schools with good
thmgs! Did you secure any of the rough figures of animals,
etc., from the grounds and buildings? The smaller ones
would be capital for the school halls, and the decorative
friezes, etc. Well, make good use of the opportunity; it
won't occur again."
William Ordway Partridge, the well-known sculptor,
says: "Save every bit of good ornament you can. It is
worth acres of books on the subject."
Professor David Swing, whose ethics are well known to
include the artistic and the beautiful, writes: "I hope the
above advice of Mr. Partridge will be heeded, and that all
the schools for many miles around us will possess some of
these beautiful forms."
BOOKS THAT TELL OF STARLAND.
I have received many letters asking me to give a list of
the books which will be of value to those interested in the
study of astronomy, but who have not much time to devote
to the study thereof. I have had many delightful hours
reading "Astronomy with an Opera Glass," by Garrett P.
Serviss (published by D. Appleton & Co., New York),
wherein legendary accounts of the constellations for the
four seasons of the year are especially interesting. I am
also a great admirer of Professor Ball's charming little
book of children's lectures, "Starland," which has proved
Vol. 6-50.
798 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
of great assistance to me with my lectures. "In Starry
Realms," by the same author, is also very profitable read-
in'g. To obtain a thorough knowledge of the constella-
tio'ns for every night in the year, I would recommend my
father's "Half Hours with the Stars" (published by Long-
man & Co., New York). "The Expanse of Heaven," and
"Other Worlds than Ours," are also of great assistance in
making us well acquainted with the planets and the possi-
bility of life in other worlds than ours. I merely suggest
these books as aids to the study of astronomy without deep
mathematical calculations. For those who have not time
to plod through scholarly treatises, the above-named books
are exactly suitable. Although the road to Castle Knowl-
edge is seldom strewn with roses, yet by the aid of these
books, the pathway to the knowledge of the heavens has
been so liberally strewn with rose leaves, that one can
scarcely detect the thorns beneath. — Mary Proctor.
FINGER PLAY OF THE FLOWERS.
In their beds so snug and deep
Lie the flowers fast asleep
Till the sun, the bright spring skies,
And raindrops call. Dear flowers, arise!
Now watch for them; one by one
They come to greet the rain and sun:
First comes Crocus, brave little fellow!
Dressed in purple and white and yellow.
Then tall Tulip, bright and gay.
Shakes out his dress and nods "Good day."
Who do you think is the next to unfold?
Why, Mr. Daffodil, yellow as gold!
Then sweet and fair, with a timid grace.
Little white Snowdrop lifts up her face.
Now waking up when the sunbeams call.
See purple Violet, sweet and small.
Good morning, dear Sun! say the bright spring
flowers;
Thank you, kind Rain, for your gentle showers.
We're glad to wake up so bright and fair.
For the world is beautiful everywhere.
Description of Play. — During first six lines the fingers are
all asleep within the doubled-up hand. At the words "First
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. /QQ
comes Crocus," the thumbs slowly rise, followed by the
forefinger, representing " tall Tulip " ; the middle finger, " Mr.
Daffodil"; the ring finger, "white Snowdrop"; the little fin-
ger, "purple Violet." At the line, "For the world is beau-
tiful everywhere," both hands are extended out with a wide
sweeping motion. — CatJicrinc Watkliis.
KINDERGARTNERS, NOTICE!
Many kindergartners are anxious to secure, through
their pens, financial assistance; and while the Kindergar-
ten Magazine is their natural avenue and always desirous
that the best thought should be expressed and made public,
it is not in a position to offer much remuneration. Espe-
cially do its editors believe in encouraging writing on the
part of young and rising kindergartners. They have there-
fore made the following arrangement as their part in fur-
thering and cooperating with the workers at large, that
they may interchange and discuss leading questions, with
remuneration of a nature quite as apt to be appreciated as
money.
1. For the most acceptable article on any of the rollow-
ing topics, covering 1,200 to 1,500 wordg, will be given a
free subscription for one year to pi.Ci\ of the magazines.
Kindergarten and Child Gar '_,t, s^nt to any address and
beginning w'th ..n^ .. ..i^uer or volume which is not ex-
haus'^..^.^.
2. For the most acceptable article on any of the same
topics, covering 2,500 or 3,000 words, will be given a choice
of books or magazines from the Kindergarten Literature
Co.'s Catalog of books, to the amount of $5.
The following is the list of subjects, which come from
active workers, and should be answered by such as are most
thoroughly equipped with experience in the demonstrations
of the problems stated:
I. Essentials and Non-essentials in Kindergarten Prac-
tice.
II. What constitutes a successful Gift Lesson? Illus-
trate.
III. How far shall Art Principles g^^vern or change the
Schools of Kindergarten Occupation work?
IV. How far shall the Programs of City Kindergartens
follow a General Outline?
V. Why should Kindergartners of different Schools
800 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
compare and discuss their respective Methods of Applying
Froebel's Principles?
VI. Is it Essential for a Teacher to know the immediate
Environment of her Children? Illustrate hor. this is to be
estimated and ascertained.
RHYME FOR OPENING THE THIRD-GIFT BOXES.
Eight fine boxes in a row!
I wonder where they wish to go.
We are all in order, too;
Shall we come round and visit }'ou?
Now they're coming, one b)^ one.
Slowly, for they cannot run.
Little boxes, we would know
\Vh}' you are so very slow.
Then the little boxes say:
'"Slow and sure!' this is our way.
Edges, corners, both have we;
So we cannot run, you see."
Now let us count — one. two, three, four —
And pull out the little door.
Lift '■^- high; first in the right.
Then in the left hand hold it tight.
Now in both hai--:^r,.[^'"ld so fast,
Down on the little bc>>^'iit list: '
Now all together — one, two, three — " •
Lift off the boxes and we see
Eight little cubes, all made of wood.
Each in its place, so sweet and good!
Note. — The number "eight" may be changed according
to the number of children. The boxes are placed in a row,
and at the words "Now they're coming," are pushed very
slowly along the table, one being given to each child, while
the teacher repeats the lines which follow. When each
child has received a box the teacher begins the line, "Now
let us count." At number "one," the boxes are placed with
the little notch in the cover toward the left hand; "two,"
the boxes are turned over once toward the right; "three,"
the cover is slightly opened; "four," the boxes are turned
so that they all rest on their covers, being directly upside
down. The boxes are then removed in concert.
— C. R. W.
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 80I
QUESTIONS ASKED BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
Q. Where can I find a plan of work which will make the spring
term of our little kindergarten most fruitful to the children? 1 read
much of sequences and the harmonious unfolding of these little lives,
and feel that there is a profound truth in it all. But just how to fit in
story, song, play, gift and occupation, to brijjg about this harmony, trou-
bles'me. We have had a very good teacher," but she failed in this par-
ticular more than any other.
A. You who read this statement and smile, be' certain
that you could yourselves help the sincere questioner out of
her difficulty. The whole purpose of kindergarten training
is involved in it. I wish — and speak from the standpoint of
a trainer — that gift and occupation materials might be for-
gotten awhile, and that the natural child, as he is, in homely
surroundings, in normal activity, could be made the object
of our study. It is a very delicate matter to study principle
through the materials, and then illustrate them by means of
the child. Froebel showed us how to study the child, and
illustrate these life principles through the materials at hand.
Re-read the "Education of Man"; get full of its power and
revelation; then go back to your children and tell them
some sweet, simple, but natural story, in a sincere way.
Ask them to tell you about the story with their hands and
hand work as well as their lips. If you are full to overflow-
ing, you will remember some bit of a song that also helps
tell the story — and so on. Sec]uences are the result oi spon-
taneous work, in which one step prompts the next. You
cannot fit the ready-made sequence to the child. Harmoni-
ous development is even this natural step-bj^-step process,
which is governed by a life law which rules the everyday
work of each creature. Be natural and true, and willing to
think and study out this law, and the rest will follow. —
H.B.
Q. What is the average salary of a competent, experienced kinder-
gartner.'' Should a kindergartner in charge of a mission class be paid
more or less than a public school kindergartner? Is there any differ-
ence between the valuations or standards of the work East or West?
A. The average salary of a kindergartner with three
}'ears' experience, including her training and volunteer serv-
ice, is from $50 to S60 per month. Where she carries the ad-
ditional responsibility of training her assistants (where there
is no other training department), we find the salary S/O.
These are city rates, proportionate to the earning of other
teachers and expenditures. The work in a mission or free
kindergarten is frequently more taxing, both to time and
802 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
energy, and should be paid in proportion. The last ques-
tion, as to a possible difference in the valuation of the work
East and West, can only be answered conditionally. It is
more than probable that the kindergartens of any commu-
nity will reflect the same degree of excellence that the public
schools or other organizations of that city do. At the con-
vention of principals and superintendents, held last winter
at Richmond, this question was fully discussed, and it was
conceded that Western schools showed greater progress in
every direction than those of the East. The reasons for
this our questioner may supply.
Q. What division of the three morning hours do you recommend as
theliiost practical? How may the "left over" time be best occupied?
A. My time-table reads as follows at present: from 9 to
9.45, morning circle, songs and talk; 9.45 to 9.55, a free
march, led by the kindergartner; 9.55 to 10.40, gift lesson;
10.40 to 10.45, march or exercise; 10.45 ^o ii-25, games;
11.25 to 11.55, occupation work; 11.55 to 12 m., march to
circle and closing exercises. This outline has been found
satisfactory. The kindergartner need not confine herself
strictly to the above periods; she should use her own dis-
cretion as to the time occupied by each exercise. The way
to utilize "left over" time depends much on the children.
In some cases, blackboard drawing and invention with fa-
miliar gifts are both pleasing and suitable. In large kinder-
gartens it is advisable to have scrapbooks for the little ones;
'Froebel finger plays are always in order. ^Bar/nce Fcrrar.
Q. Would you advise the telling of stories every day?
A. The wisdom of story-telling every day is to my mind
questionable. A child's mind loves to dwell upon the
thoughts and truths it receives; and how can it if new ones
are crowded in so rapidly? A story wisely selected may be
often repeated, and will never become so familiar as to
breed contempt if suited to the little ones' needs. Change
it a trifle some time for an experiment, and see how every
little face will be filled with wonder; and very likely you
will be corrected. If the thoughts or stories are crowded
into the little minds too rapidly, they will lose their value
and interest, and then the children will be led to pay less
attention and not try to make them a part of their own
lives. — G. E. L., Massachusetts.
Q. I am preparing myself to open a kindergarten school. I think it
would be very fine to take a full course of training, but I have an idea
that one can, by securing the proper books, get all the instruction from
them that is necessary for that work. Am I right?
•EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 803
A. Get a complete file of the Kindergarten Magazine
and study carefully its various departments, and you will
find your question answered many times. Your own con-
clusions will correspond to the common-sense view, that
what takes a lifetime to master cannot be learned from read-
ing alone. — S. S. A.
every teacher a musician.
"What shall I do about my music?" This question is
asked by nine out of every ten conscientious kindergartners.
Personal study and practice are the only solutions of the
problem. The song is your chief tool. You must have the
skill and knowledge to use it. Music is not a sealed art,
even to those claiming to be non-musical. One may know,
feel, and enjoy what one may not execute; and with patience,
even this may be accomplished. A conscientious study of
the principles embodied in the series of articles on the
"Tonic Sol-fa System," published in the Kindergarten
Magazine during the past year, will lay a practical founda-
tion for after-work. In filing applications for normal teach-
ers, city supervisors of primary departments, as well as
high-school, teachers, school men are confining their choice
to candidates with musical training. Avenues for special
study are opening on all sides. A teacher must complete
herself with reference to transferring her power to her stu-
dents; hence a special preparation is necessary beyond the
mere capacity to sing well.
The specialist who stands perhaps highest in this educa-
tional work of developing the child through its musical
nature, is Mr. Wm. L. Tomlins, of Chicago. After years
of careful demonstration, he has thrown open classes for
teachers' work with children's voices. Any intelligent, pro-
gressive teacher may avail herself of the opportunities of-
fered by these small experimental classes, and even though
she be no singer, she may learn to know what ought to be
sung by children, ho\\% and with what educational effect.
She can gain a standard for her work, a knowledge of the
principles of the good voice, good singing, proper listening
to and hearing of music, as well as the psychological effects
upon the characters of her charges. (See the February
number of this magazine for an enlargement of Mr. Tom-
lins' thought.) Every teacher who has asked the above
question should make a definite plan for personal study
during the summer or the coming year. She should be
satisfied with the best only.
804 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
HOW TO STUDY FROEBEL's " MOTHER-PLAY BOOK."
No. X.
Summary. — Make a complete list of all the songs you
have studied.
Formulate the central truth, the child instinct, and the
educational method in each.
Make a practical application of the central truth to nurs-
ery, kindergarten, school.
Illustrate from your own experience, how children re-
peat these promptings and responses.
Illustrate the principle embodied in any one of the songs,
by another song, a game, a story, and a gift lesson.
Analyze all finger plays and games outside this book
with which you are familiar, and find the central truth of
each
What song illustrates continuity as a natural law?
Would you say continuit)- and evolution are s}^nonymous
terms?
Read carefully "Symbolic Education," and trace all ref-
erences made to songs of the "Mother-Play Book," back to
the book itself. — Amaiic Hofcr.
THINGS TO DETERMINE IN YOUR SUMMER STUDY.
In how far is sense culture compatible with soul culture?
Is the training of the senses the characteristic feature of
the kindergarten work?
Is child development entirely dependent upon the
chance of sense impression?
Is the child mind in infancy entirely a blank which takes
on impressions like the negative of a camera?
What scientific proofs have been established which show
that the evidence of the senses may be false, — such as sun-
rise and earth's surface?
In how far does the power of observation eclipse the
power of imagination?
Are the thougjits prompted from within the child always
traceable to an observation of outer things?
What is the difference between physiology, psychology,
and philosophy?
Which of these three trends of knowledge does the
young child incline toward naturally?
Is the little child merely a little animal, whose lower in-
stincts are to be translated into human and spiritual powers
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 805,
by the action of time, environment, education, or evolution?
Does the evolution of a child necessarily demand the
outgrowing of childlike qualities?
What do you remember of your own childhood?
Write out every parallel experience which is brought
back to mind by a study of the nature of the child.
Are doing, thinking, feeling, distinct stages of conscious-
ness? Are these more or less contemporaneous in the child
than in the adult mind?
WHAT TO READ AND WHAT NOT TO READ.
Do not confine your summer reading to strictly within
the realm of your specific work. Kindergartners and pri-
mary teachers should especially read from the masters of
poetry and the drama. "In Memoriam," of Tennyson, will
fill you with poetic feeling as well as philosophic suggestion.
Read one or two sweeping romances, siich as Mrs. Ward's
"Marcella," or Auerbach's "On the Heights." Allow your-
selves to be transferred, body and soul, to other realms.
Do not starve your own imaginations in the violent effort
to master all the technical treatises on the imaginative pow-
ers of the child. The autobiography of the svveet-souled
artist, Jules Breton, would bring a mellow light into your
vacation culture, while Ruskin's " Proserpina" would serve
as an exhilarant tonic, and spur you to a noble estimate of
cool ferns and glades, and the poetry as well as philosophy
of natural science. That not-much-read volume of Bulwer
Lytton, "The Caxtons," will add its ingredient of homely
sincerit}^ and real life.
The coming summer will bring opportunity for reflec-
tion. Devote one of these prescient occasions to the con-
sideration of what mothers' and parents' v.'ork you will do
the coming year, supplementary to your regular kindergar-
ten or grade work. The normal school will in time provide
a department of study and preparation for this work, but at
present the individual must learn by experience and per-
sonal study how to meet this daily growing demand. Can-
vass your own experiences, and sum up how much you
have lived and tested of those things which busy, conscien-
tious, rational, practical parents would find acceptable.
While at home for your vacation, do not fall into the mis-
take of cutting yourself entirely apart from people. The
most powerful element in education is a capacity for human
sympathy. Give yourself the opportunity of practicing in
8o6 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
this direction, by going out toward simple, unpretentious,
and honest souls.
Do not always take a book with you when going to the
woods or water, and above all else, banish every such pass-
ing temptation which comes to your thought as — "The time
is going so fast!" or "The vacation is too short to do any-
thing at all in." Freight every hour with deep satisfaction,
with earnest gratitude and appreciation. — A. H.
GEOGRAPHY AND ARITHMETIC AS THEY ARE TAUGHT.
I send you herewith a part of a geography lesson which
I heard recited in a Cook County school during the past
winter by pupils of a seventh grade.
The teacher stood with the book in hand, asking one
question after the other, which the combined effort of thirty
children attempted to answer. What they could not answer,
the teacher did with the aid of the bo3k.
The lesson is not exceptional as to quality. It fairly
stands for a large percentage of the geography teaching of
the United States. In quantity it is excessive, though not
strikingly so. Here are the questions compassed by the
one lesson:
What cities in Abyssinia? Capital of Zanzibar? On
what island? Capital of Madagascar? Capitals of Cape
Colony and Natal? Of Orange Free State? Transvaal?
Liberia? Sierra Leone? Capital of Morocco? City south-
west of Fez? Name cities in Algeria. Capital of Tripoli?
Tunis? Fezzan? Barca? In what part of the country, and
how, is each of the following situated:
Cairo, Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said, Suez, Gondar,
Andorva, Aulalo, Aukober, Zanzibar, Tananarivo, Bloem-
fontein, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria, Monrovia,
Free Town, Fez, Morocco, Mequinez, Algiers, Constantine,
Oran, Tunis, Tripoli, Mourzouk, Bengazi, Timbuctoo, Kano,
Sokola, Kuka?
To match that kind of work, and usually accompanying
it, I give you two problems of an arithmetic lesson given to
a twelve-year-old girl in one of our city schools, in sixth
grade. They were brought to me by the father of the girl.
He had spent the entire evening before, trying to "get the
girl's lesson" for her. He failed, of course, and went to
bed cursing the public schools. The girl tossed on her
pillow half the night, and talked arithmetic in her sleep.
These are two of five problems:
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT.
80;
A B and C start at the same point in the circumference
of a circular island, and travel around it in the same direc-
tion. A makes i of the revolution in a day, B -^,, and L ^^
In how many days will they be together at the pomt of
starting? , , ^ j ^u
Two men are 64 ¥ miles apart, and travel toward each
other. When they meet, one has traveled 5 ^-^ miles more
than the other. How far has each traveled?— O. T. Bnglit,
Supt. Schools of Cook Co., III.
The following is a list of graded books recommended
by Colonel Francis W. Parker for a public school course in
reading:
FIRST GRADE. THIRD GRADE.
Harper's First Reader. Harper's Third Reader
Sticknev's First Reader. ?'S^V^U ^ ^^^,fS
Tnrlrl'<; First Reader Todd s Third Reader. .
Itil Ilorie^- Bis. Stories for Kindergarten and Pr,-
/Tcnn's Fables — Pratt marv Schools— Wiltse.
MoXrSool?MeMles. ^""'-.''^^"'.'^'"'"aS;?-
Seven Little Sisters — Andre\^s.
SECOND GRADE. Each and All - Jane Andrews.
Harper's Second Reader. Cat-tails and Other Tales.
Stickney's Second Reader. Nature Stories for Young Readers.
Todd's Second Reader. (^j^q^j Life— Whittier.
yEsop's Fables — Pratt. Poetry for Children.
Little Folks of Other Lands. j^^^^g Andersen's Fairv Tales (First
Fables and Folk Stories— Scudder. Series)
Easy Steps for Little Feet.
Stories for Kindergarten and Pri-
mary Schools— Wiltse.
MR. SNIDER's INTERPRETATION OF FROEBEl's
MOTHER-PLAY BOOK.
There is perhaps no greater evidence of the claim of any
book to be called a great book, than the fact that it brings to
different minds varying messages. This alone proves that
it suggests more than it expresses, and thus reveals a vast
field of unuttered wisdom in the mind of the writer^
We who have been students of the songs of troebels
"Mutter und Kose-Lieder," or Mother-Play Book, for the
past twelve or fifteen years, have been somewhat surprised
at the clear-cut psychology which Mr. Snider has shown
them to contain, in his recent course of lectures on the sub-
ject Take, for instance, the little Clock Song so familiar
to us all, sung by our children in their earliest ball games,
and reproduced on our play circles by arms or legs swing-
808 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ing to and fro, as we sing the "Tick-tack, tick-tack," which
so delights the childish heart. Most of us are familiar also
with the words of the motto of the song:
Who would find the prosperous way,
The laws of order must obey;
Who would win a happy fate,
Must learn his time to regulate.
He whom this practice shall annoy
Will be bereft of many a joy.
Then teach the child to value order, time;
For these are priceless gifts in e\ery clime.
Most of us have expatiated upon the value of punctual-
ity, have enlarged upon the serenity of mind obtained by it,
and even insisted that the habit of doing the right thing at
the right time trained the child to act from principle rather
than from impulse.
All of these are good points practically, intellectuall}',
and morally. But here comes our psychologist, who sees
far deeper meaning in this, as in Froebel's other songs.
"We have here," said Mr. Snider in his lecture on "Tick-
tack," "the first organization of the chaos into which the
child is born into time and space. As we will dwell on the
space problem later, we will now consider the orderly division
of time, only. What does this steady, unremitting beat back
and forth of the pendulum say to us? All things speak if
we have the power to hear them. Is it not telling us of the
foundation on which all rh\'thm, all music, all poetry, in
fact, all consciousness of self, rest? The division into equal
parts, of time, means much. It is the measurement of the
constantly flowing stream, the cutting up, as it were, into
definite parts, the indefinite lapse of existence. 'Tick-tack,'
says the pendulum; we have one division or measurement.
Back to tick swings the pendulum, and the measurer has
returned to his starting point, and we can now look upon
the measure of time and become conscious of its duration,
or Jength; and it thereby becomes a measuring rod by
means of which we can calculate other and longer periods
of time. In fact, the whole mechanism of the clock is sim-
ply this dividing of time into definite periods by the meas-
urer returning to its starting point. We see the second
hand doing this very thing every minute; the minute hand
returning to the same spot on the dial face every hour; the
hour hand every twelve hours. This brings us to nature's
first great division or measurement of time, — namely, into
day and night, each returning like the swing of a mighty
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. SOQ
pendulum. In wider sweeps still does the mysterious clock
of nature swing its pendulum into the lunar month and its
returns, and yet larger and deeper goes the significance of
the division of time as months roll round into seasons, and
the gig-antic pendulum of the year swings from winter to
summer, and back to winter again. Nor is this all. Astron-
omy teaches us that the earth, in its }'earh' revolutions
round the sun, advances, as it were, a second of time in its
vast revolution in space, taking tzvciity-fivc tJiousaiui years for
its slow pendulum to swing back to the exact spot in space
from which its measurement began at an}- one recorded mo-
ment. And vaster still, the wise men tell us, is the measure-
ment of time which the sun with all its planets is making in
unmeasured space. \'et certain it is that in the unthinkable
sweep through millions of years it will slowly return to the
exact spot from which it starts, until we can almost hear the
heart-beat of the universe.
" 'What means all this?' asks the thinking mind. Surely
there is some significance in so unvar}-ing a law of going
forth and returning, manifested in all things, from the in-
stant pulse of the hum.an heart to the measured millions of
the sun's slow march through the ages! It must be some
objectification of spirit, .j^w/^' sclf-cxprcssion of tlie Spirit that
created the universe. Man looks within himself and sees the
same process going on, — his subjective ego going out and
objectifying itself, then recognizing that other ego as identi-
cal with the inner ego; the story of the pendulum repeat-
ing itself in spiritual terms, — ego, other ego, ego again.
Then comes the reve/atio/if The beat of the pendulum; the
lapse of the waves upon the seashore; the onward creeping
of the shadow, and its silent retreating; the slow-moving
piston of the steam engine; the motion of the swings- all
these and a thousand other phenomena of nature fascinate
the child, because he dimly feels in them the representation
of what is going on in his own inner world of spirit; and
we call him 'idle' and 'listless,' and stir him up to some tri-
fling activity! No wonder that Froebel says, in his explana-
tion of this little song: 'I cannot but retain the persuasion
that a higher and inner meaning, a certain relation of antici-
pation and affi/iity i'l regard to the spirit, is expressed in this
as in many another play'!" And the kindergartner ex-
claims, "When will \NQ reach the depth of this psychologist
of childhood's insight!"
Again, in ''Little Tliumb is One,'' Mr. Snider gave his own
translation of the motto of this play, as he uses the Mother-
SlO KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
Play Book in the original German. Here it is: "Counting
is a great art that man is wont to underrate. How great an
art it is to find himself in space, man scarcely can imagine.
Correct counting teaches us to choose aright. It teaches
us to avoid the bad." Mr. Snider then said: ''One, the
thumb, is cut off from everything else; there is no division.
It is itself; is self-related; equal unto itself. This is self-
assertion, self-entity; that is, the one, the ego, — one 'as
outside of everything. In the one we have the abstraction
from everything else, with no property; it is without form
or color or any quality, a pure abstraction. It is just itself,
a negation. Number does not conceive of quality, yet just
here is the negation, denying itself; and there is quality,
and from quality we go over to quantity, — a turning away
from all else and then turning back to itself. The child is
one ; is awakening to individuality. This is also termed Be-
ing. What mastery it is for the child to find itself in space,
by counting 'One'! Education is the unfolding of the pos-
sible ego into the actual, the real ego. The inner mastery
is that the child discovers itself, its self-relation. This is
cognition. It is a universal philosophic fact, the same in
Hindustan as in America, and one and one make fico. Point-
ing finger is one also, — another separation, another one, a
difference. Adding to the one a second one, gives two.
The child sees the thumb — the one — as a specialty; an-
other added gives the relation of the ego to another ego.
It is a returning to itself. The second ego is another one.
This is recognition. Third, fourth, and fifth fingers — the
whole hand — represent a numerical system. Our system
includes both hands — ten — the decimal system. This is
the movement of the ego in the way of numbers in an infi-
nite number of tens.
"Accuracy of mind depends upon correct ideas of fig-
ures; 'Choose aright,' as the motto says. This is the moral
side of numbers, accuracy being the foundation of educa-
tion; but it does not mean that we are never to get out of
arithmetic. The sleep of the finger family, means that they
are an unconscious substrata always slumbering in the
mind. Mathematics is a great means of human culture,
the great step from the animal."
Of "The Pianoforte," Mr. Snider said: "There is not
much in this motto. The song is good; it gives the penta-
tonic scale, which was and is used by the Oriental world.
The heptatonic scale, as well as the science of numbers, was
introduced into Europe by Pythagoras, who was the Froebel
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 8ll
of the Greek world. He was the first kindergartner, and
took grown men into his kindergarten. There is a corre-
spondence between the kindergarten of today in him and his
scholars.
" In this play the tone world is taken up. ' Mother Sing-
ing to her Child' is one of the most important principles in
man, in nature. Time, space, tone — in these three all na-
ture is becoming attuned. The child w music." — Elizabeth
Harrison, Chicago.
SOME CRITICISMS OF A PIONEER WORKER.
Having had occasion during the past two years to visit
ten or twelve of the leading centers of kindergarten activity,
it has occurred to me that perhaps my fellow workers may
be benefited by some of the things which I have seen —
good, bad, and indifferent. In the right spirit, we can learn
as much from our own and others' mistakes, as from our
successes. I remember once during my early girlhood of
having endured for an hour the conversation of an exceed-
ingly ill-bred woman. As soon as she departed I turned to
my mother, and exclaimed, "I simply ca/niot endure such
people, and I will not come in contact with them." Her
gentle answer was, " My dear., we can learn courtesy from the
discourteous as well as from the courteous." The reproof
has followed me all through life, and I think I have learned
almost as much from poor kindergartners as from good
ones, — the one teaching me what to avoid, the other what to
strive for. Therefore, in this brief summary of my experi-
ence in the various kindergartens of different cities, I shall
speak of both the good and the bad points observed, taking
first the discouraging side of our work, and then its more
hopeful aspect.
In many of the kindergartens visited, I was struck upon
entering the room, with the confused, disorderly appearance
of the walls, reminding me in some cases of a junk shop
where the rags and tags of the driftwood of humanity had
lodged themselves. The mistake arose, I think, in most
cases, from the incorrect idea that the walls of the kinder-
garten must necessarily exhibit the hand work of the chil-
dren, no matter how crude or inartistic that hand work may
be. The kindergartner did not seem to realize that the
walls could be made to review the experiences of the chil-
dren in any other way than by placing upon them speci-
mens of the hand work by means of which the child gained
8l2 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the experience. Instead of crude representations of flan-
nel pumpkins, worsted turkeys, and crude childish drawings
to recall the Thanksgiving thought, or as in some cases,
the dust-covered, slackly arranged bunches of wheat and
oats ( no doubt beautiful when placed upon the wall, but now
disorderly and untidy), could not the same thought of the
Thanksgiving period be kept by a good picture of a har-
vest field, or of the fruits of the earth, which could be
neatly framed with a glass over it? The same might be said
of Christmas, Washington's Birthday, and Easter, not to
speak of the crude and oftentimes exceedingly ugly pla-
cards on whose glaring white surface have been pasted red
circles, blue squares, or yellow triangles, to remind the
child of the forms with which he has become familiar.
In our dusty cities why can we not have one soft, gray, or
mellow tint of each form to be a prompter to the memory?
It is almost impo.ssible to keep the perishable and easily
soiled materials of the kindergarten occupations clean and
neat in appearance. The child's work must necessarily be
simple even to crudeness; but it is not necessary that this
crudeness should be continually emphasized by being
placed upon the walls, when the thought which has been
brought out can be retained in some beautiful and artistic
form. By not remembering this, do we not violate one of
the essential principles of the kindergarten, by sacrificing
the love of harmony and of beautiful surroundings to the
teaching of facts concerning form and color? Are not the
walls of the kindergarten and the schoolroom silent teach-
ers of the child, as potent, in their way, as are the active
teachers, who oftentimes utter words beyond the child's
comprehension? Is it not time, therefore, that our kinder-
garten walls should at least be as quiet, harmonious, and
beautiful as those of a well-ordered nursery in a home of
education and refinement?
Nor do we need to sacrifice the spontaneity of the child
in our appreciation of his small efforts. We can praise the
effort made by each child, no matter how crude the result,
and even, if necessary, hang it upon the wall for a day or
two, but remove it, send it to his home, suggest his giving
it to a friend, or place it in a scrapbook, before it becomes
dirty and dingy. Again, I have noticed, particularly in the
kindergartens in the West, the lack of right appreciation of
harmonious combinations of color.
If harmony of music has so vital an influence upon the
child, does not harmony of color also have its effect? In
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 813
one kindergarten I remember to have noticed a quantity of
bright green and orange-colored chains, producing a jarring
sensation upon my brain. On asking the kindergartner
\vh}' such a selection of color had been made, she answered:
" Oh, they were just the odds and ends we had left over from
last year." "But," suggested I. rather timidly, "do you not
think the effect upon the child is discordant?" "Oh, no,"
was her answer; "children do not notice such little things
as that." I felt like recommending a course of reading in
Ruskin to her.
In another kindergarten I saw, placed in conspicuous
rows, cards of parquetry work, some of which were done in
purple, pink, and yellow, others in green, yellow, and red.
I objected to the combination, and received in reply these
words: "We always let our children select their own colors.
How else are they to learn combination of colors?" I felt
like asking if she always allowed her children to select the
songs they sang and the food they ate, or their own line of
conduct in a game. Cannot individual choice be kept sa-
cred, and yet harmony with universal laws be inculcated, by
allowing the child freely to select one color, and then se-
lecting for him some other color which would be in har-
mony with the first?
Surely constant dealing with inharmonious combinations
cannot be the right method by which to educate the taste
into the love of harmonious combinations! I have been
asked over and over again how to decorate the walls so that
the color thought might not be sacrificed. It seems to me
that the Japanese have taught us a lesson in this direction.
The coloring of even their cheapest prints is rich and strcfng,
and yet rarely out of harmony. Any kindergartner can get,
for a few cents, good Japanese pictures of birds and flowers
which will emphasize the various colors of the rainbow in
soft, rich, mellow tones. The recent imported cheap re-
productions of Fra Angelico's pictures give us again a rich
combination of strong coloring. Cassell & Co., of London,
Eng., have issued a series of bird pictures, which are close
to life in their reproduction of a soft and exquisite blending
of gorgeous plumage. The more recent pictures sent out
by Prang & Co. are also harmonious and yet strong in color,
and are cheap enough to allow one or two, at least, to hang
upon every kindergarten wall.
It seems to me, therefore, that there is no excuse for dec-
orating our walls with pieces of flannel, yarn and worsted,
scraps of silk, and bits of cotton goods, in order that the
Vol. 6-51.
8l4 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
children may have red, blue, and yellow, green, purple,
and orange before their eyes. Every good kindergarten
ought to have a prism through which the sunlight can
play at some time during the morning and throw upon the
wall or floor that richest of all nature's combinations of
color, the rainbow.
Again, I have noticed in many kindergartens the playing
of games which were entirely out of season, and conse-
quently out of the range of the child's immediate sympa-
thies. I recall visiting one kindergarten where the children
were led out upon the grassy lawn to play their games be-
neath the> shadow of a spreading maple tree. The bright
June air was wooing them; the thoughts of flowers and hum-
.ming birds, of running streams and leafy trees, were sug-
gested by the surroundings. The kindergartner stepped
into the middle of the circle and selected the game "Chilly
Little Chickadees"! When I afterwards asked the reason for
such a selection, she said the music was simple and the chil-
dren were familiar with it. "Could you not change the
words to 'Merry Little Bobolink,' or 'Happy Little Whip-
poor-will'?" said L "Oh, I never thought of that!" replied
the kindergartner; and yet she was a kindergartner of sev-
eral years' experience. Surely our kindergarten world fur-
nishes us with games enough to give each season its own
appropriate play, and yet to remain within the realm of
typical activities so admirably urged by Miss Susan Blow in
her book, "Symbolic Education."
Again, I have been pained by the artificial gesture,
which excessive and one-sided study of Delsarte has caused
to s^-eep like a flood over our land. Gesture we must have,
if we would give the child power to express himself freely;
but can it not be simple, natural, and childlike gesture? I
remember being in one kindergarten where the teacher and
all her circle of little ones solemnly rose to their feet, bal-
anced themselves upon their tiptoes, lifted their arms high
in the air, slowly brought the palms of their hands together,
and with equal solemnity brought them down to a position
upon the breast, seen so often in the pictures of the me-
diaeval saints at prayer, then slowly sank upon one knee,
and with careful adjustment bowed the head over the folded
hands. This preparatory performance being over, the
Lord's Prayer was chanted. On asking the purpose of so
elaborate and artificial a preliminary, I was told that the
kindergartner believed in the reflex action of body iipo)i mind,
and wished to produce the feeling of reverence in her chil-
EVERYDAY PRACTICE DEPARTMENT. 815
dren! A more theatrical and absurd performance I have
rarely ever witnessed, and yet she was a genuine and honest
woman who had caught a glimpse of a great truth.
Again, a mistake common in many of the kindergar-
tens which I have visited is the one of thinking that the
precious morning talk of fifteen or twenty minutes is a
golden opportunity to be seized for stuffing the young
minds with certain /^/r/j- of the science world, of number or
geometry, instead of realizing that it is the all-important
time for gathering together the various experiences of the
children which have come since the last session of the kin-
dergarten, of leading all into participation in the expe-
rience of each, and of finally gathering the interest and
attention of the whole upon the thought which the morning
is to evolve.
But enough of criticism. We all know how much easier
it is to criticise than to do. In my next paper I will tell of
some of the really excellent things which I have seen done
in the kindergartens that I have visited. — Beta.
MOTRERS' DEPARTMENT.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE NURSERY.
Our young philosopher has grown into a strong, vigor-
ous individual, with a will all his own. He has long had his
own playthings, his own high chair and low chair, his own
wagon and sled. He has evolved his own way of doing
things; has ideas, and plans for carrying them out to their
logical conclusion. With all the ideal conditions that have
surrounded him from his birth, we very naturally expect
that he will always "behave ideally"; and bitter is the sur-
prise and disappointment when he is discovered to be Self-
ish, overbearing, quick tempered, even violent at times,
peevish, when he could much easier be as happy as a bird;
and we wonder and wonder why it is thus, after all our care,
prayer, and love. "Original sin and total depravity," we
hear from many. "A chip off the old block," says some
one who has known the parents "before they were regener-
ated." "His grandfather right over again;" "Indigestion,"
says the doctor. No, in none of these can be found the
true cause of selfishness, of temper and irritability in the
child that has had an ideal infancy. There are two causes.
A child in a household is almost sure to voice the struggles
and conflicts that go on in the older minds and hearts. In
the present conditions that make up our mortal life these
are many and often very severe for one or two in the house-
hold— perhaps for all; and these inner conflicts, however
carefully concealed from the outer eye and ear, are often
serious in their effects on the child, who is a sensitive plate
which manifests outwardly the hidden sorrow, jealousy, dis-
appointment, or anger. Observe this carefully, mothers
and kindergartners, and you may be able to easily correct
much that is unpleasant in the child's conduct. His mental
equilibrium has been disturbed, discordant vibrations have
poured in upon the brain, and not only fits of temper, but
illness, may result. So when a child throws itself down on
the floor in a fit of rage, beating its head, until the mother
raises it, kicking and screaming, lest it seriously bruise it-
self, do not dose it for indigestion or worms, nor say "just
like its aunty," but discover, if possible, who has charged
mothers' department. 817
the mental atmosphere with discordant vibrations. The
child has not yet learned to hide his feelings behind a smile;
he is miserable, or suffers acute pain. If we will consider
the selfishness of our inner lives, is it any wonder that little
children closely associated with us should manifest selfish-
ness also? Eliminate selfishness, sorrow, jealousy, and an-
ger from the minds of the entire household, and it will be
outside the home nest the child will meet these irritations.
The other cause of temper outbursts and of fretfulness is
the growth of the will; and the correct training of this
faculty, which is the pivotal one between mind and soul,
constitutes the whole education of man. This will be con-
sidered at greater length in a little book for parents and
teachers, which is being evolved out of experience.
The child must exercise the will as well as the body, and
if there is an atmosphere of repression in the family the
child's will is incited to rebellion through instinctive self-
defense, because it must have the exercise that insures
healthful growth; for the will is the moving power of every
organ and muscle in the body, and of every faculty of mind
and soul. The best treatment for an irritable child is to let
it pretty much alone. When it seeks your attention give it
the tenderest manifestations of affection, saying the gentlest
and happiest things to it. But never, never give it baby
talk. That very often causes irritability in a fine, strong,
high-spirited child.
If the child is selfish let it see everyone about it doing
something for the special happiness of others. It is amaz-
ing how quickly he will respond to the genuine thought
about him; but shams are of little use as factors in the true
education. If the child is in a violent fit of temper, do not
speak to it nor touch it until you are in perfect control of
yourself; then draw its attention to something outside of it-
self, and while it is deeply interested remove the immediate,
the exciting cause of the outburst.
Never angrily antagonize the little child. You must
have perfect control of both temper and judgment before
you can discipline a child. When there is a conflict between
the will of the child and the will of the parents or nurse, let
the grown-up people look well to their mental state before a
course of discipline sets in. Constantly encourage, and in-
spire confidence in your love by good sense and good judg-
ment.
Never prevent the child from exercising the inestimable,
the divine, privilege of doing for itself and others, and 7ievcr
make it afraid.— A/ma N. Kendall.
8l8 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
A REASON FOR THE FAITH.
Mothers have a right to ask kindergartners to give a
reason for the faith that is in them; to say, "Tell us, actu-
ally and practically, what the kindergarten is going to do
for our children." Fathers have a right to ask mothers
whose hearts are set on putting the children into a kinder-
garten, "What is the good of it, anyway?" and unless the
kindergartner can tell the mother in a way she can under-
stand, the mother cannot tefl the father in a way which will
make him feel that he is paying bills to any particular pur-
pose.
The average mother of children today believes in a gen-
eral sort of way that the kindergarten is a good thing. She
believes this because people tell her so. She knows that
the teachers are usually earnest and conscientious women,
that the children are amused and entertained, that the\-
learn pretty songs and plays, and make bright-colored little
gimcracks for her to take care of. But just wherein consists
the direct educational advantage, the intellectual and spirit-
ual good, is the point where ideas are apt to be a little haz\'.
She sometimes wonders why her child should be better off
in a kindergarten than playing happily at .home or out of
doors.
Now it is very hard for a young Icindergartner to formu-
late an answer to questions on these points. She knows a
good deal more than she can tell. Like the children, she
can at first express better in deeds than in words. To give
any simple, definite, and satisfactory statement of the pur-
pose of the kindergarten, such a statement as will form clear
ideas in a mother's mind, is not easy for any kindergartner,
on account of the comprehensiveness of the subject; for it
is as broad as human nature; it is nothing more nor less
than a thought and intention of God that we have to inter-
pret.
Kindergartners are very apt to take Froebel's writings
and use them as a sort of balloon by means of which they
take flights into the empyrean so far above the ordinary
walks of life that the mother who has not made a direct
study of Froebel has great difficulty in following.
Every child has a threefold nature. He is body, mind,
and soul. At home, during his early years, his body is the
chief object of care and solicitude, mind and soul being
allowed to develop pretty much as they will, at first. In
school the mind gets most of the attention, body and soul
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. blQ
being largely left out of calculation. Now if it were not
true that the child has a threefold nature, it would be all-
sufficient to give him good physical care during his first six
years, and then to send him to school to have his mind
trained. If in the one child body, mind, and soul did not
dwell together during life as an inseparable unity, the old
wav of caring for body at home, mind at school, and soul at
Sunday school, would do very well, and there would be no
need of kindergartens. But the child has a growing mind
and soul at home, he has an active body and a forming charr
acter (another name for soul) at school, he takes his rest-
less body and inquiring mind with him to Sunday school.
He hiis this threefold nature, and as yet the kindergarten is
the only educational institution which recognizes it and
strives to educate it.
Whatever the kindergartner gives a child, of song,
story, work, or play, takes into account the actixe body, the
unfolding mind, and the growing character or soul.
The best educators, ancient and modern, agree that the
forming of character, which implies a power to act rightly,
efiiciently, and wisely, is the end and aim of a true educa-
tion. Teachers today are beginning to put this thought
into practical daily use. The child is not to learn simply
that he may know, but that he may do, and through doing
what is wise and right, build up the character which is to
make him what he cmi be in time, and for etern ty. All
hand work and manual training are means to this end. The
amount of clay, paper, wood, or iron work that a boy turns
out is nothing in itself; but the power developed and the
character formed by the conscientious doing of it amounts
to a great deal. It is much that head and hand, working
skillfully together, enable the child to express himself in
noble doing and right living.
In the ideal school the child works with his hands and
with his head, not for the sake of what hands can do and
heads can know, but for the sake of the character developed
by these means; for the sake of /;t7'//^<,'" a useful, right-doing
man.
All admit the uselessness of culture without character,
hence 'the school that does not make the forming of charac-
ter its chief aim is not what it ought to be, not what it can
be, not what it will be when the kindergarten spirit and
principle enters into it universally; for in the kindergarten
the forming and developing of character is the chief aim.
The kindereartner cares much more about making a child
820 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
helpful, kind, and considerate, than about the number of
mats he weaves, though the weaving of the mats is one
means toward this very end. Her child-gardening does not
consist in raising crops of paper chains, clay bird's- nests,
colored mats, and sewing cards, but in bringing to flower
growths of kindness, courtesy, industry, helpfulness, and
unselfish action. She has to get out of her garden plot
many weeds of selfishness, stubbornness, fretfulness, idle-
ness, and the like; but she does not so often pull them up
by the roots (a dangerous thing to do when seeds are
sprouting) as crowd them out with flower seeds.
Everything must have a beginning. If character is the
end of education, if it can be developed, formed, and built
up by right teaching, there is a good reason for beginning
at the beginning and sending a child to the kindergarten,
where such teaching is the rule.
How is this threefold nature developed? The body is
developed by happy, wholesome, hearty play, plenty of ex-
ercise and activity of every sort, marching, singing, garden-
ing, gymnastics, and outdoor excursions, so ordered that
mind and soul grow by their use.
The mind is developed by the gifts and occupations,
which involve bodil)' activity and are made a means of char-
acter building.
The soul is developed by constant exercise in right do-
ing. The kindergartner believes that the soul grows by ex-
ercise as well as body or mind; that to become unselfish a
child must act unselfishly; that to become kind he must
have constant exercise in acts of kindness. He must "learn
through doing," here as elsewhere.
Every child has in him powers, possibilities, and capaci-
ties that are his alone, and unlike those of any other human
being. He is like the seed which contains all of the future
plant. In the right soil, with the right amount of air, sun,
and rain, the seeds of power will grow and the child will be-
come what God meant him to be. While at home, a child
has the right soil, sun, air, and rain, perhaps. His parents
are willing that he should be an individual, and in the happy
freedom of a home atmosphere he grows and expands nat-
urally during his first three or four years. If he goes to a
kindergarten this kind of growth will go on, for there is a
place in the child garden that is his alone. He is no more
expected to be the child his neighbor is, or to do the exact
thing his neighbor does, than two flowers growing side by
side in a real garden are expected to put forth the same
mothers' department. 821
number of leaves and blossoms. Each child has opportu-
nity to develop ivJiat is in him.
But suppose, as the years go on, he does not go to the
child garden, which has been tried and proved to have the
best so'\\^ the right amount of sun. air, and rain, and where
the gardener has been trained for child culture? He will
be very like a flower in tolerably good soil, with chance
amounts of sun, air, and rain, in the care of a more or less
skillful but untrained gardener.
The kindergarten stands for individual development;
and knowing it, you will at least wish your child to have the
training for a year or two, even if he does go to a public
school later on, where the large number of children makes
class work necessary. At least you will put the tender little
slip in the right soil and in a sheltered, sunny garden, even
if it has to be transplanted to the open prairie later, to grow
there as best it can.
Another reason for putting a child into a kindergarten
is that he must and will have the companionship of other
children. It is right that he should. Man is by nature a
social being, and a child can no more be happy without the
companionship of his equals than his father can. In the
kindergarten world, where he finds the society he craves, he
gets in songs, stories, games, and work his first lessons in
citizenship. These lessons are especially emphasized in the
games he plays, as the principle underlying them is largely
sociological. A child comes to the kindergarten from a
home where for a long time he has been the center of a not
always wise thought and observation. This is more or less
true of all children, but especially true of an only child.
He at once finds himself one of a number. While tenderly
watched and cared for, he is of no more importance than
any other; and yet the games cannot be carried to their
happiest issue unless he does his part, unless everybody
plays. When he refuses to play, as he often does at first,
he is not allowed to reap the benefit of the united play of
the others. This, of course, is after the first strangeness has
worn off; for he is always allowed to be a guest and a look-
er-on for awhile if he wishes it; but he early learns in a
small way that he must do his share of work in the world,
whatever it may be.
The change from home to school is a hard one for many
children. To a shy, sensitive, or nervous child the strain is
often a great one. Even the normally hearty and healthy
child, who goes gladly to school the first day, finds, after
822 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the novelty wears off, that life is a very different thini,'- all
of a sudden from what it used to be. From a home life
where he could move about at will, speak when he pleased,
rest wdien he was tired, and change his mental attitude
whenever he liked, he is plunged at once into a place where
he must sit still, stop talking, work whether he feels like it
or not, and keep his attention fixed in certain directions.
It is time he should do these things, but they are all so new
that it usually takes him some time to get mentally, and
[)h)sically adjusted to the new conditions. Often the proc-
ess is a painful one to pupil and teacher.
To the kindergarten child entrance into school life is but
a step, for he has acquired habits of obedience, order, self-
control, and industry. Accustomed to the few simple rules
of the kindergarten, he comes at once under the necessary
discipline of school- life. He is used to doing things in an
orderly way and at the right time. He has learned to work
quietly at whatever is given him to do. He has been taught
something of the importance of punctual and regular at-
tendance, or rather, his mother has, if the kindergartner has
done her duty; and best of all, he has learned to xvork. The
kindergarten is the wisest combination of work and pla)\
At first, to the little four-)-ear-old, it seems all play; but it
glides naturally and easily into such real, earnest work as
gives a child a power of application that he cannot possibly
get at home, where the work given him must necessarih' be
haphazard and desultory.
The kindergarten child who works industriously at his
paper folding or clay modeling because he likes it, will go
into school with a habit of work that he will put into prac-
tice on his reading and writing. He has learned to observe,
to think, to copy, to work. The other children have all
this to learn, as well as the required amount of reading and
writing.
Aside from the work of school preparation done for a
child by the awakening and exercising all his faculties, a
good kindergarten sends him into school life with clear
concepts of form, color, number, position, direction, and
other qualities learned from objects. He has, moreover, an
inclination to try and a power td do whatever work is put
into his hands. His originality has been allowed to express
itself and has grown thereby. He has learned to talk by
talking, and so is able to express himself with some degree
of clearness. The teacher seldom gets from a kindergarten
child the well-known public school answer, "I dunno."
MOTHERS DEPARTMENT. 023
The child who goes to a good kindergarten is indeed a
happy one. His threefold nature is being daily fostered,
cherished, and allowed to grow. His character is being so
built up that he is learning to find his happiness in right do-
ing and unselfish living. He is learning this by means of
the pliiy that is as natural to him as breathing. He is
allowed to express his inmost self freeh', to do what he can
do, to try his own experiments, and find' out things for him-
self. He has the joy of companionship with other children,
and learns from them the lessons of each for all and all for
each, that are to develop into a practical brotherhood of
man. He is not only being led on the best possible path
from home to school; he is not only being- prepared for
school, but he is daily being made happier in his home lite,
being fitted for later life, being prepared for eternity.
To sum up briefl}':
1. The kindergarten de\'elops the ///n^'/^Vc/ //^^■///'n' of the
child.
2. Its object is the formation of cliaractcr by means of an
harmonious development of bod}-, mind, and soul.
3. This is accomplished by means of play, childlike
zvork, and constant exercise in r/;'/// doing.
4. The kindergarten recognizes and seeks to develop
the iitdividnality of each child.
5. It furnishes him with the (•oinpanions/iip of his equals,
through whom he gets his first lessons in citizenship.
6. It affords the best transition from home to school
lite-
7. It provides the best preparation for school life.
8. It strives to prepare the child not only for time, but
for eternity, by enabling him to grow into what he ca/i be
and what God meant him to he.- Kdtlicri/ic Becbc.
F.AIRY JUNE.
Who is this so lightly creeping
Over the grass where the buds lie sleeping.
Bringing the west wind soft and sweet.
Treading the earth with fairy feet,
Waking the birds to a sweeter song.
Lulling the stream as it flows along,
Making the whole earth smile and bloom?
Hark, while I whisper: 'tis Fairy June!
— An /lie McMidlcn, Toronto.
824 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
OUR HOME CLUB.
How we organized, how we succeeded, why we organ-
ized, whose idea it was, where it originated, are questions
which have been asked of us over and over again. We are
a very simple organization of women, whose chief aim is
our own development along those lines which all human
beings crave. We began with a small circle of eight moth-
ers, who were desirous of looking into the problems of
child training along kindergarten lines. During the first
,two months of our existence our doors were opened to
thirty-three other like-minded women, and we are adding in
the same ratio every month. Our only executive is a chair-
man, treasurer, and secretary. The club has now extended
its study to all topics pertaining to the home, as our name
indicates. Committees are appointed from time to time, to
plan work according to our growing needs. We have a
charity committee, which the necessities of the past winter
made imperative; also a music committee, which provides
the program for an occasional evening session to which the
families and friends of members are heartily welcome. Our
regular meetings have been held once a week, in the hotel
parlors of a suburban village. One dollar is the member-
ship fee, and provides six lectures as well as admission to
all open meetings. Our club was organized for self-help,
but we early found that we were held together for larger
purposes. It is easy to meet emergency duties, with cloth-
ing, food, and cheer out of the abundance of our own home
as well as heart stores.
The sincerity of a band of women hungry for heart cul-
ture has called forth responses and generous cooperation
from other busy women and men, such as our city of Chi-
cago abounds in. No wonder that our growth as a club has
been so marvelous in every direction! We are prepared to
answer to one of the above questions: Our idea, like all
contagiously good things, came from heaven. We hope
now to do for others as we have been done by. We have
given rise to an evening choral society for the young men
and women of our community, and have found it quite a
natural result to gather together the many unseen home
talents which one by one have come to the surface through
our social gatherings. We have had informal lectures on
music, art, travel, child culture, sociology, temperance, wom-
an's work, psychology, and other kindred topics. It has
been our privilege to secure the best speakers and special-
mothers' department. 825
ists, who, coming in the name of fellowship, have taught us
the lesson of the ages. Sociability is the sunshine to intel-
lectual and human growth. — Mrs. S. B.
AN OPEN LETTER.
I have been a subscriber to the Kindergarten Maga-
zine since January, '94, and find much help from the read-
ing of it. Surely there never was a time when we needed
to reach the inner lives of our children and each other as
now! My children are small, and whether I will succeed in
perfecting them' in this way I do not know; but so far I
know they have a reverence for their mother and God. I
am making myself young with them, enjoying what they
enjoy, and teaching them to come to "mother" for all things
their mind seeks to know; teaching them to look with holy,
loving eyes on the origin of their birth. 'Tis difficult for
those that have a false education to do this. The mother
must first be taught to look on this subject with new and
holy eyes; then we will be able to teach our sons and
daughters those things that will save them many of the
perplexities of this life, and will enable our daughters to be
true, noble mothers.
We live in the country, but as much as possible I have
tried to develop the higher nature of my children by the
study of God through nature. There are such golden op-
portunities to teach them lessons of kindness and tender-
ness, of God's love and mercy, and to be interested in the
smallest of his creatures. This spring we got soil from the
woods for our flower beds, and in it was a snail. One morn-
ing I saw it moving with its shell, and it was a source of
amusement and instruction "to see the snail move its house
on its back." So we find many things for instruction if we
watch for them. I know there are many thoughtful moth-
ers that are anxious to help their children to the full possi-
bilities of their lives, and we find so much in this magazine
to make us thoughtful and watch for these little things.
While we may find no rule to go by, we can be so awakened
that we can take our own circumstances and environments
and do much. I am teaching mine the very foundation
principles of life, and raising them naturally in every way,
as to food, clothing, and all, and I have found a great bene-
fit from it. There is so much for all of us to know! — Mrs.
L. B. Skumer.
826 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
^ A GARDEN.
(Written for A. H. C.)
-I passed a beautiful garden
On the fairest of days in June.
Where the sweetest sound of singing
Floated out in a gladsome tune.
I heard there the gardener telling
All the flowers to upward grow, —
The lilies tall and violets sweet,
That grew in a long, straight row.
And truly 'tis a noble truth
That the gardener's lesson holds;
For my gardener was a woman,
And the flowers were little souls!
— Esther Gill Jackson.
The following extract is from Chapter "VTII, entitled
Vortical Education, of "S)-mbolic Education^ a Commentar}-
on Froebel's 'Mother Play.'" by Susan E. Blow:
"I have likened the unfolding of the nursery songs to
the life of a tree. In this conversation we see the branch of
natural history shooting out from the great limb of sympa-
thy with nature. In relating the isolated elements of her
child's experience the mother necessarily becomes scientific.
"The category of our age is evolution, and the one ques-
tion we ask of each object is how it came to be. Of our
own coming to be, however, we know little or nothing. To
most of us the first few years of life are a blank in memory.
We wake to consciousness with definite feelings, thoughts,
and tendencies. Whence sprang the feelings? How grew
the thoughts? What fixed the tendencies? We ask in
\-ain. Over the sources of life roll the silent waves of un-
consciousness, and memory loses itself in a beginning when
'all was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep.'
"How much it would add to the power and beauty of
our lives if this lost connection could be at least partially
restored! Should we not better understand what we are if
we knew how we came to be? Might not a wise and tender
mother, by watching her child, behold the dawning of his
conscious life? Might she not, by sacredly guarding in her
heart his small experiences, reconstruct for him the past he
cannot remember? Should not the first history a child
learns be his own?"
FIELD NOTES.
Louisville, A>.— All things worth attaining demand effort; struggle
gives strength; and the past year of financial struggle has proven the
strength of the kindergarten work in Louisville. A business man
prophesied last summer, that charities would have a hard time in Louis-
ville this winter; necessities would demand all the money. But there
have been cases where persons have kept up ^their charities and dis-
pensed with what before were considered necessities. The kindergar-
ten work in Louisville has never been in better financial condition.
The year now closing has been one of continued effort in all directions
— effort which has been amply rewarded. There are eight free kinder-
gartens under the Free Kindergarten Association of Louisville, and nine
private kindergartens under graduates of the association. When the
founder cf a great work leaves it to other hands, it is always a critical
moment for the cause. Miss Anna E. Bryan, who started the work in
Louisville seven years ago, was a born trainer of women, knowing how
to pick and choose her girls, seemg all the possibilities of minds and
personalities with which she had to deal. Owing to this first training,
one of the noted points of the work in this city has always been the loy-
alty of its supporters and directors and principals to each other and to
their training class. This point of work without friction has been illus-
trated by Miss Patty S. Hill, the present training teacher, in her work
with her former co-principals and classmates. The work has gone
smoothly on the entire year; not once a sign of jealousy or unkind criti-
cism. And a house founded on the rock of internal peace and trust in
each other and loyalty to the truth can but stand. At the annual meet-
ing on Saturday, May ii, 1894, the yearly reports were most gratifying.
Miss Hill, the present superintendent of the free kindergartens, gave an
encouraging statement of the year's work. She has kept the standard
of class work and practice work up to the highest average attained in
the past, and not content with this, has had the three classes — junior,
senior, and post-graduate — do some very original and interesting work.
Miss Patty Hill is a born teacher and kindergartner, trained by Miss
Bryan, full of ideas, constantly studying, experimenting, and investi-
gating new methods in art and science. This prophet of the " new edu-
cation " is not "without honor in her own country," and all Louisville's
best educators are glad to know that Miss Hill will be with the Free
Kindergarten Association in the new year beginning September, 1894.
The training classes have been larger this year than ever before, there
being more applicants for the February class than could be received.
828 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
The West aad South contribute largely to these classes, and never be-
fore have there been so many kindergarten students from other states
at the Louisville school. The ladies of the association have decided
that it is time to use a building or purchasing fund which has been
gradually accumulating, and have purchased a beautiful building with
good yard — 240 E. Walnut street, only a few squares from the old par-
ent kindergarten. This new house will be the headquarters of the asso-
ciation. A kindergarten will be in daily operation; Miss Hill's private
office and class rooms will be in this building; also a boarding depart-
ment for those young ladies in the training class whose homes are at a
distance. This " Kindergarten Home "' is destined to be a very popular
work, many donations of linen and furniture having been already re-
ceived. There will be a matron in charge, a housekeeper, and compe-
tent servants. The need of such a home has been keenly felt, and now
that it is at last a reality, it is very certain there will be more students
from a distance. The training classes and principals of the free kinder-
gartens have had lessons this winter with Miss Mari Ruef Hofer, of
Chicago, who has helped us over many hard places and given us truth
through living, vital music. Her short stays with us have been an in-
spiration, and the tone of her work is felt, seen, and heard in all the
singing in the free kindergartens of Louisville. It is probable that she
will take charge of more work in Louisville along the same lines. Miss
Hofer is a woman who believes in the mdividual and his right to be him-
self; and her living of her own true self has been an example to many a
girl, when she knew it not. The number of visitors to the kindergartens
from a distance has been very large; on the register of one kindergarten
alone were found the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, New-
York, Chicago, Sacramento, Jacksonville, and Cincinnati, while seven-
teen states were represented. Missionaries from other countries have
spent days investigating the Louisville methods, and have in nearly all
cases expressed themselves as delighted and helped by the work seen.
The prospects for next season are most encouraging. With Miss Hill
in charge of the training class. Miss Hofer in charge of the music, and
others to give lectures on art and the sciences, the Louisville work may
well hold up its head and take its place in the tirst rank, accorded it
throughout the length and breadth of the land. — Fitiie M. Burton.
Hannibal [Mo.) Kindergarten. — For the past four years we have had
a private kindergarten in our city, conducted and taught by Miss Jo-
sephine Jackson. One year ago she left the little institution in compe-
tent hands, and went to St. Louis to complete her studies in the work.
While there has been a gradual growth in numbers and in general pub-
lic interest, it has not been as yet sufficient to rightly compensate Miss
Jackson for her very efficient work, and to give the children of the city
the benefit of that training which is every child's birthright. Miss Mary
C. McCulloch, of St. Louis, visited Hannibal on the loth of March, and
FIELD NOTES. 829
presented the claims of the kindergarten as a whole to the people. She
said if they could not take it into the public schools as yet, the next best
thing was to form an organization. It was suggested that we secure
subscribers to send children who could not otherwise have the benefit
of such training. From the time of this visit began a new era in the
kindergarten at this place. New interest, wider interest, and enthusiasm
were manifest. Miss McCulloch was asked to return April 28. In the
afternoon of that day she held a mothers' meeting, which was well at-
tended. Miss McCulloch addressed the meeting at length, explaining
Froebel's Mother-Play Book, and showing how the principles taught
in it are the basis of the kindergarten. She unfolded the truth of one
song as typical of the whole, — "The Light Bird," and its beautiful motto,
"Early this truth to thy child must be told:
All things that charm him his hands may not hold."
In the evening of the same day a meeting was held at which speeches
were made by representative men of the city, — the president of the
school board, lawyers, ministers, teachers, judges, etc. Miss McCulloch
followed these with a few remarks delivered in her own bright inimitable
way, and then the organization was formed. Officers were elected for
the various departments, — officers who will work, — and we feel safe in
saying that better things are in the near future for our Hannibal kinder-
garten.— Mrs. B. IV. Ficlde}-, Sec.
A Year s Rcsiuiic of a Great Work. — The Kindergarten Association
of Grand Rapids, Mich., has just closed its third year of work. The an-
nual reports show remarkable progress. The membership of the asso-
ciation has nearly doubled during the past year, and the training school
conducted under its auspices now enjoys a three years' course, the first
and second years' work being certificate courses, and the third the
diploma and normal course. There is now a demand for an alumni
class or society in which normal students can still continue studying.
The total enrollment in the three classes is fifty-one students. The
school is particularly fortunate in enjoying the services of Mrs. Lucretia
Willard Treat as principal, whose generous spirit and high thought in
the work is so largely the motive power that has placed this training
school on its present basis. There has also been organized in her
charge a teachers' class, meeting weekly, composed of teachers of the
public schools and the students of the public primary training school.
She also conducts a class for mothers, Sunday-school workers, and all
interested in true child culture, known as the " Froebel Study Class."
Public meetings are held often by the association and by these various
classes. In the work of the training school Mrs. Treat is assisted by
Miss Hester P. Stowe, who also directs the private kindergarten con-
ducted under the auspices of the association. But the general interest
in the work is not confined to Grand Rapids alone, nor even to Michigan.
The Macedonian cry comes to Mrs. Treat from many quarters, and with
Vol. 6-52.
830 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
the true Froebellian spirit of loving service she responds to many calls.
During the past year several Michigan cities have enjoyed regular series
of weekly talks from her, — namely, Dowagiac, Kalamazoo, and the San-
itarium at Battle Creek. In addition to these regular classes Mrs. Treat
has presented the v^ork at teachers' institutes and associations at Jack-
son, Saginaw, Flint, Wayland, Bay City, Lake View, Coldwater, Green-
ville, and Cadillac, and given addresses at Lake Odessa, Sparta, Sara-
nac, Ionia, and Howard City. Four weeks of each summer are also
given to work at Bay View, Mrs. Treat having charge of the kindergar-
ten department of the Bay \'iew Assembly. Engagements outside of
Michigan have been met as follows: Under the auspices of the Woman's
Educational and Industrial Union of Columbus, O., Mrs. Treat has
given a series of four weeks' work at intervals during the year to the
Columbus Kindergarten Training School; upon invitation of the Board
of Education of Duluth, Minn., a series of ten talks in Duluth; also simi-
lar series for the kindergarten study classes of the Home for Christian
Workers at Albany, N. Y., and at Pittsburgh, Pa. Addresses have been
given at Cohoes, Utica, and Wellsville, N. Y., and at Newark and Salem,
O. She reports a growing and most encouraging interest all along the
line. Just at present many are looking forward with pleasant expecta-
tions to a recently added feature of the work at Grand Rapids,^ — a sum-
mer school, conducted on the same plan as the training classes, the
course including the study of the gifts, occupations, songs, games, and
stories, given as completely and thoroughly as in the regular training
course, with work also in Froebel's own book, " Mutter und Kose-
Lieder," which contains his highest or spiritual thought of the kinder-
garten. This book is made the basis of all Mrs. Treat's training and
study. One special advantage of this summer school is the fact that
teachers and others who cannot take a full year for the study can, by at-
tending this school for a series of summers, of two months each, in tmie
receive the full certificate course the same as those in regular training.
Also, students of previous study in other schools can enter advanced
work, and there will be the benefit of daily practice work in the kinder-
garten with the children, a number of the Grand Rapids kindergartens,
both free and private, being kept open for that purpose. The summer
term opens July 5, and closes in September.
A Kmdergarten Stimmer School. — For several years the Chicago
Kindergarten College has been asked to give its course of study in con-
centrated form in a summer school, that public school teachers who are
engaged in regular work through the school year might avail themselves
of it. For the first time a summer school has been organized and a
course of study planned which will give teachers the principles which
underlie the kindergarten, and the very cream of the training, which will
be of the greatest help to all teachers of young children. This course
of study has been planned by Mr. Denton J. Snider and Miss Elizabeth
FIELD NOTES. 83 I
Harrison. Mr. Snider has been a colaborer with Dr. William T. Harris
in all his fine plans for improving the course of study in the public
schools and bnnging about more rational and philosophic methods in
these schools. Mr. Snider's method of studying great literature will be
given in this summer school, and illustrated by twelve lectures on
Shakespeare, thereby enabling teachers of literature, and those desiring
the broader culture which such study brings, to prepare for further in-
dividual study of higher literature in general. Shakespeare is the gen-
ius, the master, to whom the whole English-speaking world must bow, ^
therefore is he selected from the great poets. Miss Elizabeth Harrison
will give ten lectures on the Mother-Play Book, the great text-book of
the kindergarten. She will amply illustrate from this book how Froe-
bel's "principles of education" can be applied in the home and in the
public schools as well as in the kindergarten. This course has been
listened to by hundreds of teachers and mothers in our large cities in
■ the last two years. Miss Harriet Niel, for twelve years a student of
Miss Susan E. Blow, will give a course of ten lectures on "Symbolic
Education." Miss Niel will also give detail work of the psychological
side of the Mother-Play Book. Miss Grace Fulmer, for seven years con-
nected with the Kindergarten College, will give ten lessons on the theory'
and practical work with the gifts, for advanced kindergartners, also the
application of the hand work to the public school room. Twice a week
the games will be played by all students desiring to learn how play can
be made a means of education. Mrs. Ruth Kersey, formerly professor of
literature in the Indiana State Normal school, will give a course of twelve
lectures on the critical study of the English language. Mr. Charles
Scott, who has made the science work of the St. Paul public schools
famous throughout the whole country, will give a course of* ten Field
Lessons on Botany. Mr. W. W. Speer, author of "Form and Number
Work in Educational Psychology of Mathematics," will give two courses
of lessons on the Psychological Method of Teaching Form and Number
to Children in the kindergarten and in primary grades of public schools.
Miss Eleanor Smith, the composer (pupil of Professor Julius Hey, of
Berlin, the greatest trainer of the voice in Germany), will give lessons in
vocal music with reference to introducing the best method of voice cul-
ture into public schools. Miss Martha Fleming, teacher of physical
culture in the Kindergarten College, will give lessons on the training of
the body.
While the great increase in the establishment of kindergartens in the
large cities of the North and West must be encouraging to those looking
out upon the whole field, still more so must be the news from outlying
provinces of their spread and gain in popularity. In and near the cen-
ters of great progress in every direction, especially in that of education,
we look naturally for enthusiasm among the many workers, and for the
results that must follow combined effort. But when only a few in a
832 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
community are interested in a cause, it needs an especial endowment of
grace to accomplish anything. Such grace, they feel, has been vouch-
safed the promoters of the free kindergarten in the city of Galveston.
Less than a year and a half has elapsed since the first free kindergarten
was established here, and at that time a private kindergarten was dis-
continued for want of sufficient patronage. There are now in the city
two flourishing private kindergartens conducted by Miss McBride and
Miss Warner. The success of these is in many respects due to the
opening of the free kindergarten, as they are largely patronized by
those who contribute to the support of the latter charity. In January of
last year the free kindergarten was opened with about thirty pupils, and
by dint of great effort fifty pupils were secured. This reluctance to
send the children has been so successfully overcome, that even with an
enlarged room and increased facilities in every respect, more little ones
are brought than can be received. This good work, inaugurated under
Miss McBride, has been efficiently continued by Miss Wakelee.
Though comparatively new in the work, she seems imbued with a spir-
itual msight into its meaning and the needs of the children. Under her
guidance are five assistants, to whom she has communicated her own
zeal and enthusiasm. The enrollment at present is seventy-five; but
owing to unusual sickness among the children, the average attendance
has not exceeded sixty-five. The kindergarten is located in the vicmity
of large mills; in fact, the use of the building occupied has been do-
nated by the manager of the mills. From the first he has given it his
cordial support, and acknowledged the good effect apparent among his
employees only a few months after its establishment. When recently
asked for a larger building he most gladly put one at the disposal of
the assocfation, again testifying to the improvement among his people,
traceable to the kindergarten in their midst. Twice during its short ex-
istence pupils have been transferred directly to the lowest grade of the
public school. The last having had longer training, were, as a rule, es-
pecially satisfactory to the teacher receiving them. The entire sym-
pathy of the superintendent of the city schools, and other prominent
citizens, fosters the hope that in a short time the kindergarten will be-
come a part of the free school system of Galveston. — K. C. R.
A Sketch of tJie Califortiia Kindergarten Training ScJwol. — Organ-
ized in 1880, this training school is now almost a venerable institution,
though it has as yet little of the decrepitude of age about it. It has
graduated 339 kindergartners, who are doing pioneer work in free and
private kindergartens from the north to the south of California, and
through Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona, while some of them
have even crossed the Rockies and invaded eastern soil. Mrs. Kate
Douglas Wiggin, the founder of the training school, remained in con-
stant connection with it until 1887. Then beginning to devote herself
more exclusively to literary work, she relinquished her position to her
FIELD NOTES. 833
sister, Miss Nora Smith, who for four years had been her assistant. Mrs.
Wiggin gave an annual course of lectures in the training school until
1892, and still remains in touch with the work, sending the class occa-
sional papers on educational topics, and giving her advice and assist-
ance whenever needed. In 1888 Miss Marie Light (now Mrs. Marie
Light-Plise) became Miss Smith's assistant, and has remained with the
school until the present day, enriching the instruction with her artistic
taste and unusual musical ability. Miss Smith has been forced by ill-
ness to be absent from her training work eight months of the year just
past, but her place has been satisfactorily tilled by Mrs. Plise. What-
ever things Mrs. Wiggin and Miss Smith have neglected, omitted, or
done unwisely, they have never failed to impress their students with the
gravity and importance of their work, nor to kindle in their spirits a
steady light from which many another has caught the sacred fire. The
following is the course of study in the training school, and synopsis of
work done in each branch:
Study of "Mutter und Kose-Lieder '' continued throughout course, beginning with
analysis of each separate motto and picture, passing to classification of songs, with es-
says upon one or more, and concluding with a series of lectures by the principal; study
of pedagogy continued throughout course, with monthly talks by principal on the great
educational reformers; one term's work on psychology, using Jerome Allen's " Mind
Studies " as a basis, supplemented with original work by pupils and talks by principal;
weekly lessons in Delsartean theory and practice, by assistant teacher; lectures on the
Froebel gifts and occupations, supplemented with original work by pupils and addi-
tional readings by assistant teacher: books of work with original designs in all the
Froebel occupations; practice in the games, singing, story-telling, clay modeling, and
giving of model lessons continued throughout the year.
The Kindergarten Institute, cooperative with the "social settle-
ment" of the University of Chicago, is a new institute of FroebeUian
training for women, including in its scope all phases of child culture.
The directors are Mary Boomer Page, Frances E. Newton, Annette
Hamminck Schepel, Lucretia Willard Treat, Mari Ruef Hofer, Carrie
C. Cronise, Ethel May Roe, and Amalie Hofer. Its regula?- kindergar-
ten study classes, limited in number, will be organized Monday, October
I, i8q4. Its course will cover two years, and includes one year of sys-
tematic service under competent direction in the active kindergartens.
The supplementary study class is arranged to meet the requirements of
students who have had previous training and experience, and who de-
sire additional study for a few weeks or months. Students will be re-
ceived in this class at any time during the year. The greatest attention
will be paid to the individual capacity and needs of each student. The
entire training will be presented from the standpoint of the family, and
opportunity will be furnished for practical experience with children in
the home and day nurseries, as well as in the kindergarten. A limited
number of students will compose each study class, in order that the
family character of the work may be preserved, and to admit of fellow-
ship between students and directors. The aim m every branch of the
8.34 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
work is to forward individual growth in intuitional, spiritual, and intel-
lectual power, also in the freedom and control of the body, and the ap-
plication of this power to the training of children. All departments of
study essential to the sound training of the kindergartner will be thor-
oughly provided, including practical psychology; study of Froebel's
Mother-Play Book; study of the applied arts; vocal and instrumental
music; natural, social, and domestic sciences; also such special lectures
by eminent professors, of the University of Chicago and others, as shall
be deemed profitable to the immediate growth of the students. Par-
ents' study classes, also an institute for Sunday-school workers, will be
organized early in the year. Apply for application blanks and further
information, as to terms, conditions of admission, living arrangeriients,
etc., addressing any of the following directors: Mrs. Mary B. Page, 2312
Indiana avenue, Chicago; Miss Frances E. Newton, 2511 Michigan ave-
nue, Chicago; or Miss Amalie Hofer, Woman's Temple, Chicago.
The Minneapolis Kindergarten Association was formally organized
June 23, i8g2: Previous to this date several preliminary meetings had
been held for consultation and for the purpose of awakening public in-
terest in the establishing of free kindergartens in the city. It was
deemed advisable to begin the work by establishing a normal training
school for the preparation of kindergartners, and in this connection
maintain only one kindergarten at first, the number to be increased as
soon as practicable. Mrs. Elsie Payne Adams, who had been with Mrs.
Putnam, of Chicago, for several years, was engaged to superintend the
work, and early in October, i8g2, the training school opened with a class
of twenty-one young ladies, the kindergarten having an enrollment of
about fifty children. A class for advanced study of kindergarten work
was also organized, and this soon counted among its members many of
the private kindergartners of the city, and also several teachers from
the public schools. The active work of the association has been carried
on through three principal committees, — the Finance Committee, which
raises the funds; the Educational Committee, whicla furnishes lectures,
parlor entertainments, and everything pertaining to the advancement of
the new educational ideas; and the Supervisory Committee, which, with
the superintendent, has the direct management of the kindergartens.
In spite of the hard times our Finance Committee has succeeded in
keeping enough money in the treasury to meet all expenses, and the
number of kindergartens has increased to three, all large and flourish-
ing. Miss Jean MacArthur has been our superintendent the past year,
and will be next year. The training class, which graduates June i, num-
bers some thirty young ladies. The total enrollment of children during
the two years has been about six hundred. One aim of this association
is to assist in forming public opinion in favor of introducing kindergar-
tens into the public school system of our city. The officers are, Pres.,
Mrs. Geo. H. Miller; First vice pres., Mrs. H. P. Nichols; Treas., Mrs.
FIELD NOTES. 835
Geo. B. Shepherd; Rec. sec, Mrs. J. C. Cook; Cor. sec, Mrs. Luth.
Jaeger; Chairman Finance Com., Mrs. R. H. Passmore; Chairman Edu-
cational Com., Mrs. D. F. Simpson; Chairman Supervisory Com., Mrs.
A. Ueland.
The American Congress of Liberal Religion, which was held in
Chicago the fourth week in May, 1894, was one of the most significant
meetings ever held in our country, second only to the great Parliament
of Religions. This congress is older in conception than even that
world-famous parliament, as it came from Rev. H. W. Thomas, Profes-
sor David Swing, several of the prominent Universalists and Unitarians,
and some Jewish rabbis — the most prominent of whom has been Rabbi
Emil G. Hirsch of Sinai Temple, Chicago, where the congress was held.
The idea of unity has taken deep hold of the twentieth-century mind;
the new century is already born into the mental world. The nineteenth
century developed the individual, the ego, the twentieth century will
surely bring the innumerable egos into a unity of purpose. This con-
gress was positive and constructive in tone, as well as powerfully theis-
tic. " I believe," were the words from all. A permanent organization
was effected, with Rev. H. W.Thomas as president. The scope of the
religious, educational, and literary work of this large and wealthy organ-
ization will be very great. If it will incorporate the kindergarten into
its very foundation it will be a complete, a whole thing, able to construct
a new world, for the kindergarten principles are the most complete
statement of belief in God and faith in the divine possibilities of
humanity yet made. The proph.etic feature of the congress was the
reception given it by the Standard Club (Jewish), where hundreds of
prominent Christian ministers were the guests of one of the strongest
Jewish organizations in the world. The name of the permanent organ-
ization was recommended to be " The American Congress of Liberal
Religious Societies," and the report suggested that "its purpose should
be believing in the great law and life of love to unite in a larger fellow-
ship the existing liberal societies in social, educational, industrial, moral,
and religious thought, on a basis of common substance and spirit; not
only to unite existing societies, but to form new ones and bring about a
closer relationship of all denominations to resume universal unity, co-
operation, and fellowship in the church of humanity."
Sketch of Kindergartoi Work in St. Paid. — The first kindergarten
was established in St. Paul almost by accident. A kindergartner who
had just come to St. Paul, substituted in the second grade of the Sibley
school, and used her kindergarten methods in that work to so great an
advantage that the principal, a firm believer in the kindergarten, after
much effort succeeded in having a room in her building fitted up as a
kindergarten. This was in February, 1892. So popular did the new
kindergarten become, and so many friends did it make, that despite
836 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
much opposition the superintendent and board of education decided to
open twenty kindergartens the following September. That number of
rooms was fitted up, accordingly, in various parts of the city, while a
kindergarten training department was added to the teachers' training
school. Although mistakes were made the first year in adapting the
kindergarten to the public schools, and to children five years of age,
nevertheless the kindergartens became the most popular department of
the public schools, and those who had been bitterly opposed to their es-
tablishment became their firmest friends. At the close of this, their
second year, they are in a flourishing condition. The training school
has graduated ten kindergartners, three of whom are now serving suc-
cessfully as directresses, while the remainder are assisting in the various
kindergartens. The work is carried on in the training school by the
following teachers: Miss Darrah, the principal, psychology; Mrs. C. L.
Place, science and physical culture; Miss Gertrude Stoker, drawing;
Miss Mary Hanchett, primary methods; Miss Antoinette Choate, model
kindergarten; Miss Frances Montgomery, music and the theory of the
kindergarten. The kindergartners at present being drawn from a great
variety of sources, no one school predominates; but there is one spirit
throughout, striving for the ideal. There is a kindergarten association,
the officers of which are, president. Miss Choate; treasurer. Miss Green;
secretary, Mrs. Passage; executive committee. Miss Brooks, Miss Mont-
gomery, and Miss Choate. Several mothers' classes have been organ-
ized in various parts of the city, the largest of which, numbering about
fifty, is under the direction of Miss Choate.— jE". M. D.
Editors Kindergarten Magazine: — The paragraph concerning
" Hawaiian kindergartens," in the department of Field Notes in the
Kindergarten Magazine for May, 1^94, suggests that you are prob-
ably not aware of the exact status of the kindergarten at the Islands. A
recent conversation on this subject with the principal of a preparatory
school near Honolulu, leads to the conclusion that it is safe to say that
the majority of the teachers in the schools referred to in the quotation
from the Star, have not had the kindergarten training. It is true that a
few graduate kindergartners have gone to Honolulu from the Pacific
coast; but on the other hand, the importance of thorough training is ap-
parently not appreciated by all, for this same lady, while holding a dif-
ferent position and teaching younger children, was asked to introduce
the kindergarten gifts and occupations in her work. Having had no
training in their use, she wisely declined. In further proof, here are
some sentences from the letter of another friend, long resident in the
Islands and for some years engaged in missionary work there. She
says: "As we have no foreign missionary lady now in the field, we have
taken up what perhaps might be called home work, for the Chinese,
Japanese, Portuguese, and Hawaiians. There is mission^ work being
done for all these by our board. We have Bible readers, and of late
FIELD NOTES. 83/
have been starting free kindergartens for each of these nationalities;
next year we expect to add another for poor white children. Diversity
of language makes it necessary to have many schools. If [a
graduate kindergartner] was here she could help us much, as we lack
trained teachers. has taught the kindergarten; this is her
second year. By study and some instruction from chance opportunities
she has done wonderfully well. She longs for a full course of instruc-
tion, but cannot go to San Francisco for it." With all respect for those
who seek to help these many little children, and due appreciation of
their labors, one cannot but regret that these kindergartens are not con-
ducted by those to whom proper training has given an insight into the
real philosophy of the kindergarten, and so the power to make their
work of the sort Froebel meant it should be. — M. L. S.
The close of the school year finds the work of the Chicago Free Kin-
dergarten Association continuing to prosper. On June 15, diplomas will
be granted to thirty-four young women, and certificates, which are pre-
sented at the close of one year's course of study, to thirty-one. No cer-
tificates will be given after this year, however, since the course has been
extended to cover two years, and the certificate course, as such, abol-
ished. It is an encouraging fact that of the eleven graduates of the
February class, seven secured positions or engaged in private kmder-
garten work on their own account within a very few weeks. There are
at present sixty students in the first-year classes. The special features
of this year's work have been a series of ten lectures upon the History
of Art by Mr. Geo. L. Schreiber, and monthly talks from Dr. F. W. Gun-
saulus upon the Development of the Race as Pictured in Bible History.
There has been also a class in the study of primary methods, made up
of the principals of the kindergartens and other graduates, and con-
ducted by Miss Sarah Griswold, of Cook County Normal school. A
number of social gatherings among the students and workers have
tended to bring all into closer sympathy and harmony in their work.
Three new kindergartens have been opened in the course of the year, so
that now there are twenty-two free kindergartens under the auspices of
the association. It has been possible this year to bring the children in
closer contact with nature than ever before, and to make it more than
ever the subject of work and play. There are in connection with three
of the kindergartens real outdoor gardens of which the children take
entire charge. Friends of the association and any others who are inter-
ested are invited to attend the commencement exercises, which will be
held at Armour Institute, June 13, at 8 p. m. Miss Eva B. Whitmore, the
superintendent, will read a report of the work of the association in all
its departments. The address will Ije given by Colonel F. W. Parker,
— subject, "Possibilities," — and the certificates and diplomas presented
by Dr. Gunsaulus. New classes will be organized in September, as
838 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
usual. The position of principal of the training class will be filled the
coming year by Miss Anna E. Bryan.
Free Kindergarten Movenu-nt at Springfield, Mass. — One year ago
there was only a mild interest in kindergarten work in this city, and on
the part of not a few influential people a notion that it was not adapted
to this locality, whatever it might seem to accomplish in other cities.
An expermient had been made, with unsatisfactory results, and the de-
pressing effect Imgered for years. However, the right time was at hand,
in spite of mdifference and discouragement, and the good cause was
rescued by what Matthew Arnold calls the "saving remnant." The
movement began in the urgent appeal of one woman to her pastor, pro-
ceeded through his advocacy of the undertaking, came to successful op-
eration through the generous gifts of a score of benevolent and intelli-
gent men and women, and culminated in the grant of rooms in one of
the public school buildings. The kindergarten was opened in a district
containing many needy families, in charge of two rarely gifted and well-
trained teachers. They canvassed this section of the city, explaming to
mothers what would be freely undertaken for their children, and easily
obtained a score of neglected boys and girls for the opening day. Dur-
ing the year the roll was increased to fifty; and with these as material
to work upon, they have demonstrated to the public not only the desira-
bleness of such a course of instruction, but its absolute necessity. Many
of the children were unaccustomed to order, or even cleanliness; they
had no power of attention and no disposition to right living. The
change wrought by six months of skillful training according to the most
approved methods of the kindergarten, demonstrated the value to the
public of such a department of instruction, an9 the school board has
voted to adopt as a part of the public system^ the movement which be-
gan in private enterprise. With the beginning of the new school year
free kindergartens will be opened in at least four sections of the city,
and the friends of this most Christian and beneficent cause may be as-
sured that another city has been permanently added to the list of those
that care for the little ones of society. — E. G. Selden.
The Chicago Kindergarten Club held its opening meeting Novem-
ber 4, 1893. On account of the illness of the lecturer announced for the
day, the regular work of the club was deferred one week. On Novem-
ber II, Professor Starr, of the University of Chicago, began a course of
six lectures upon "Some Early Steps in Human Progress," which were
well attended by an enthusiastic audience. At the close of these a seri-
ous problem presented itself. A year of financial depression caused a
decrease in the membership of the club and a corresponding lack- of
funds, so that the anticipated program for the post-holiday period could
not be carried out. Through this emergency, which called for the most
earnest thought on the part of the officers and members, came a series
FIELD NOTES. 839
of lectures which extended over a large area of thought. At no time
was a subject presented which did not arouse a desire for deeper re-
search and lead to helpful discussion. It is a matter of great satisfac-
tion that so much interest was manifested not only by members of the
club but by friends of the kindergarten cause, who gave their services
in most delightful talks and lectures. The following was the program
for the year:
Nov. 4, 1S9-,, opening meeting; Nov. 11, Prof. Starr. "Food-getting and Fire-mak-
ing"; Nov. iS, Prof. Starr, "The Stone Age"'; NoV. 25, Prof. Starr. "Dress and
Adornment"; Dec. 2, Prof. Starr, "Gesture and Speech"; Dec. Q, Prof. Starr, "Writ-
ing"; Dec. 16. Prof. Starr. " Myths and MytTimakers "; Jan. 6, i«g4. "The Higher Min-
istries of Contemporary English Poetry as Illustrated in A. Tennys'on,'" Dr. Giinsaii-
lus; Tan. 20, "Music," Mrs. Putnam, Miss M. Hofer: Feb. 3, "Economics,'' Mrs. Ellen
M. Henrotin: Feb. 17, " Color," Mr. Geo. L. Schreiber; March 3, "The Sociological As-
pect of Personality," Prof. Graham Taylor; March 17, "Child Study from a Musician's
Standpoint." Prof. Cady; April 7, "Social Settlement Work," Miss Jane Addams, of
Hull House; April 21, Froebel birthday celebration at Cook Co. Normal; April 28,
"Games." Miss McDowell. Miss Heebe, Mrs. Shortall, Miss Alice Temple; annual
'""■''""• — Mary J. Miller, ' Rcc. Sec.
The Housekeepers' Class, under the Silver Street Kindergarten So-
ciety, reopened in July last year, having two classes with an average
attendance of si.xteen pupils each, ranging between the ages of nine and
fifteen. The classes took up the branches of housekeeping, sewing hav-
ing been introduced, each girl having her workbasket and work; On
sewing days there is ample time for conversation, when confidences are
imparted. One of our improvements this year has been a little book,
which we have called " The Economical Recipe Book." Our bread rec-
ipe was found in this way: Five little girls each baked a small loaf of
bread and brought it in. After the games, " Waiter Girls," " The Cook,"
etc., the older girls retired to the teachers' lunch rooms and watched,
while one little girl set the lunch table for four people. Her work was
sternly criticised and then tried by another, then another, until complete
and perfect, when we sat down to lunch, some of the children serving
as waiters. The bread was sampled, and the girl who brought the best
loaf gave her recipe, which was placed in our book for furtner use.
Luncheons not only give great pleasure to the class, but prove very
clearly the value of the term's instruction. One motherless child of thir-
teen performs all the housework for her father and brothers. Others
have inaugurated reforms in the family methods, have brought new
ideas to sweeping, ironing, etc., and many mothers testify to the great
practical worth of the weekly lessons.— Grace E. Pierce, San Francisco.
Mr. F. M. Bethmann, of Dorchester, Mass., has undertaken the
preparation of color prints from Froebel's Mother-Play Book illustra-
tions. The first from the press is that of the "Grandmother and
Mother." The central family group is well colored and very suggest-
ive, while the many lesser families of bird, beast, fish, insect, and fowl
840 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
are realistically grouped about the picture. Froebel's work as now illu-
minated, will be a decoration for the kindergarten and schoolroom, as
well as for the home and nursery, and will hold its place on the walls, a
source of constant delight to the children, as well as a silent teacher.
The lesson will be conveyed to the children just as the great teacher,
Froebel, wished it to be, they unconsciously feeling the quiet influence
of the families represented as living in perfect harmony. The picture
will also furnish talks and observation lessons for mothers and care-
takers of small children, as well as for infant classes in Sunday schools,
where^ many lessons can be drawn from it and many lovely songs can
be sung in connection with it. Size 22x30 inches, mounted on cloth,
bound on top and bottom by tm, with rings to hang it. Price, mounted
on cloth, $1.25; unmounted, $1. The following pictures from "Mother-
Play " are now in preparation to be issued in same style as above: " The
Coal Miner," "The Wind," "Grass Mowing," "Pigeon House."
The National Educational Association of the United States meets at
Asbury Park, X. J., July 6 to 13, 1894 (council, July 6 to 10; general asso-
ciation, July 10 to 13). The Official Bulletin, issued about May 15,
was sent to all mdividual addresses furnished to the Bulletin Com-
mittee. The program of the kindergarten department is as follows:
"The Psychology of Froebel," by Caroline M. Hart, Baltimore, Md.;
"Life Principles in the Kindergarten," by Annie M. Bryan, Louisville,
Ky.; "The Necessary Relation between Kindergarten and Primary
School," by Lucy Wheelock, Boston, Mass.; "Self-activity," by Eliza-
beth Harrison, Chicago, 111.; "The Value of Organization," by Sarah J.
Cooper, San Francisco, Cal.; "The Related Development of Morality
and Intelligence in the Kindergarten Idea," by Mary McCulloch, St.
Louis, Mo. The papers given in the art department are "Art Educa-
tion and Manual Training," by J. Liberty Tadd, Philadelphia Public In-
dustrial School; "Color in Public School Education," by Mary Dana
Hicks, Boston, Mass.; "Perspective in Public School Education," by D.
R. Augsburg, Salt Lake City, Utah; "Elementary Art Education in the
Public School," by W. Bertha Hintz, New York Art School; "Modeling
in Public School Education," by Elizabeth C. Kent, Minneapolis, Minn.
0?naha, Neb. — At ovk last meeting in March (as a Froebel society)
we listened with great pleasure to Rev. Dr. Duryea, of our city, upon
"Principles of Kindergarten" — a regular psychological talk. He took
the infant from birth, and gave us much to think about. On the 14th of
April we all welcomed Miss McCulloch, and were pleased to find that
the many primary teachers whom we had invited to come felt that they
had had their clearest view of the kindergarten and its work, and the
connection between it and their w^ork. After holding her audience com-
pletely for over an hour, questions were solicited upon what she had
said, or any in reference to the work in any way. A number of practi-
FIELD NOTES. 84I
cal ones were answered in a satisfactory manner to parties concerned.
In the evening an informal reception was given Miss McCulloch at
Commercial club rooms, which was fairly well attended in spite of the
pouring rain. The time was spent in social chat, and the guest of the
day recited a pretty story to the assembled members as they formed an
almost unbroken circle about her. After a brief explanation of how and
why we should study "Die Mutter und Kose-Lieder," the closing hour
had come. Good-bys were said, and all realized that they had received
great inspiration.
It will be very joyous news to the whole body of kindergartners to
know that there is an effort being made to establish free kindergartens
and creches in Jerusalem, the city where the founder of Christianity (and
of the kindergarten also) gave to the world the immortal principles of
life that must ultimately govern every nation and race as well as every
individual. The Rev. Abraham Ben-Oliel, with his wife and daughter,
is now in the United States for the purpose of interesting our Christian
people in this very important work. The kindergarten should be intro-
duced into every missionary field in the world, home and foreign, for it
touches the taproot of both individual and national life. Jerusalem is
being flooded with the exiled Jews from Russia, and their condition is
often pitiable. As this is an unusual opportunity for all those kindly
disposed toward foreign missions to exercise their charitable intentions,
we give the address of the very able and most excellent missionaries.
As Mrs. Ben-Oliel is going to interest the mothers in the kindergarten,
we give her name: Mrs. Ben-Oliel, 10 E. Twenty-third street, New York
City, care of Rev. Dr. Rice.
The boys' library of the Silver Street Kindergarten Society, in its
second year, has enrolled 1,050 readers, the daily attendance averaging
sixty boys, of all ages from five to twenty-one years, no one being de-
nied an entrance who is willing to comply with the simple requisites of
cleanly appearance and good behavior. All the current books of inter-
est and profit, and some of the standard works, have been diligently
read and studied. During this year of stress, when men have been with-
out employment, the library has been of great service in the homes of
the boys. The lads have tried to select "books that father would like,"
and often asked advice in the matter. The girls, too, have eagerly read
their brothers' books, and manifested so much interest in the library,
that arrangements are hoped for in the future that may give them a per-
sonal share in its benefits.— 7%/^« G. Ames, Librarian, San Francisco.
The Bay View Summer School for Kindergartners.— Y ox several
years the Bay View Summer School for Kindergartners has been in a
condition of unusual prosperity and good work. Mrs. Lucretia Willard
Treat is at the head of the school, and that is enough to attract teachers
and kindergartners. Mrs. Treat is aided by a body of trained instruct-
842 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
ors, and the school has a large kindergarten where students may study
and take part in the actual work. The ample rooms, with balconies
and equipment, are said to be finer than those of any similar school.
There is a large mothers' class that is very popular. The school is one'
of the six schools in the widely known Bay View Summer University, of
Michigan, and Bay View is one of the most interesting places in all the
world. Information may always be obtained by addressing J. M. Hall,
Flint, Mich. Ask for the Bay View Magazine.
We regret that we have not a report of the St. Paul and Minneapolis
kindergarten meetings and lectures which took place in April. Miss
Elizabeth Harrison, and Miss Amalie Hofer, the editor of this magazine,
were in attendance and report large audiences and great interest mani-
fested. Miss Hofer was very busy with many lecture engagements to
fill, editorial duties, and at the same time was getting ready for a four
months' leave of absence in Europe, whither she has already gone in
the interests of this magazine. Miss Harrison also had many lecture
engagements which took her to distant cities, and her duties during the
closing weeks of her training classes are always heavy. The subeditors
did not know of the omission of this very important report untd too late
to get one from St. Paul. Miss Harrison will give a full one in the Sep-
tember number of this magazine.
The California Froebel Society, Miss Nora Smith, president, has
worked under the following programs during the year just past: August
— The Ideal Kindergarten: How shall we House Our Children? Sep-
tember—The Kindergarten and the Public School: How shall They
be Connected? October — General Playday: "Mother-Play" in this
Connection; November — Cooperation of Kindergartner and Mother:
Mothers' Meetings, Home Visiting, etc.; December — Modeling and Its
Value: What and How shall We Model? January — Business Meeting
and Election of Officers; February — Daily Religion in the Kindergar-
ten; March — Art in the Kindergarten: Handiwork and Wall Decora-
tion: Do We Use the Occupations Artistically? April — General Play-
dav: " Mother-Play" in this Connection; May — The " Program," or Use
and Abuse of Authorized Exercises.
Stockton, Kan. — Early last fall there was organized a free kindergar-
ten association here, with president, board of directors, and such com-
mittees as seemed necessary. A kindergartner was engaged, and the
work was begun. Stockton is a town of about eight hundred inhab-
itants, and forty-six little ones have been enrolled during the five months
which have intervened since the opening of the free kindergarten rooms.
This shows what can be done even in a small community. Thirty-two
children are in attendance, costing the association only $3.59 each, for
five months.. This does not consider the materials and furniture, which
were donated. Many of the members have labored faithfully against
FIELD NOTES. 843
discouragements, for the support of the kindergarten, and sincerely de-
sire that'at no distant day it become a part of the public school.
Slimmer Work. — From everywhere comes the request for summer
school work, and with great pleasure we call the attention of our friends
who desire to come to Chicago during the season, to the outlined course
of the Chicago Kindergarten College, which is given on the first page
inside the front cover of this magazine. This institution has taken hold
of each phase of development and thought coming naturally into the
kindero-artner's and mother's needs, in a broad and most liberal manner,
and offers especially in this summer program the highest possible men-
tal refreshment to the aspiring worker who looks to the vacation months
for renewed energy and freshened ideal. The corps of workers is most
excellent, and thoroughly equipped to do all-sided work.
Lincoln, A-eb.— lsWss Clara Baldwin's kindergarten. Thirteenth and
K streets, was started four years ago; there were then but seven pupils
in attendance. The number rapidly increased as the advantages to be
derived from kindergarten became known, and today it is a large and
flourishing school. In connection with this school is a kmdergarten
training school for teachers, at the Lincoln Normal University. This is
conducted by Miss Baldwin and her sister, Miss Kittie A. Baldwin, a
graduate of the St. Louis training school. Specialists have charge of
such branches as psychology, education of man, history of education,
Delsarte, and vocal music, and no pains are spared to make this one of
the best departments of its kind.
The Cherryfield (Me.) kindergarten closes its fifth year. Although
not coming under the head of a free kindergarten, it is open to the pub-
lic for a very small fee. There are some plants that grow very rapidly
and seemingly with but little care; others need the most careful over-
sight, especially to keep off anything that may hinder their growth.
Even so has it been with our Cherryfield kindergarten; supported by
those who are wide awake and deeply interested in the "new educa-
tion," it yet has assailants from many points who cry out against it.
Nevertheless it is now in good health, and we hope for prosperity the
coming year. — Clara Schwartz.
Miss Elizabeth Harrison covered the following subjects in her
recent course of lectures at Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.: "A Study
of the Child Nature and its Needs;" "The Scientific Basis of the Kin-
dergarten;" "When to Praise and when to Censure Children — to what
Instinct are we Appealing?" "Duty of the State to its Future Citizens;"
"The Instinct of Freedom, and how to Train it;" "The Germs of True
Religion, and how to Develop them in the Child." The first audience
numbered about four hundred, among whom were many fathers as well
as mothers and teachers.
844 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
How to Spend the Summer. — No matter where, be sure and have an
outfit with you for procuring subscriptions for Child-Garden. • One
young lady in Chicago took this advice, and inside of two weeks had
eighty subscriptions (made $40 for herself), and interested three separate
communities so much that any one of them will support her in opening
a kindergarten next fall. She found herself welcome everywhere, and
made it a great opportunity for speaking of the cause. Write for the
instructions, to Kindergarten Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago.
A FREK kindergarten has been in existence in connection with the
schools of Rawlins, Wyo., for nearly three years. It is supported by a
special tax. The work is steadily growing in favor; and in order that
its influence may be carried into the country schools, a training school
has been planned and will be carried on during eight weeks of the sum-
mer vacation. At our State Teachers' Association, March 29 and 30,
1894, the resolutions embodied the recommendation that free kindergar-
tens be added to all the graded schools. — Effie Murchison.
At Huntington, N. V., there is a flourishing kindergarten. Miss
Lizbeth Willis, who was formerly in Ues Moines, la., was secured to or-
ganize and conduct the kindergarten, which starts out with the hearty
cooperation of principal and school board, fully equipped for the carry-
ing out of Froebel's idea. The large union school, much like an acad-
emy, is under the supervision of the Board of Regents of the State of
New York.
Miss Mari Ruef Hoker is already engaged for the coming year
to do field work along the line of child voice culture and normal music
training. From June 15 to 30 she may be interviewed and addressed at
1207 Woman's Temple, Chicago; July i to 10 will find her in Lexington,
Ky., holding classes, and after July 10 she carries on the same work with
students in Chicago, outlining plans for their fall work.
. The Kindergarten Literature Company will be competently repre-
sented all the season through at Chautauqua, N. Y., at Bay View, Mich.,
at Ottawa, Kan., and several other summer assemblies; also at Asbury
Park, N. J., during the session of the National Educational Association.
Any of our friends inquiring will receive the utmost attention and hearty
advices. Ask for our publications and catalogs.
On Friday, May 11, the kindergartners of San Francisco and vicinity
gave an entertainment for the benefit of the California Froebel Society.
Miss Nora Smith read a manuscript story entitled "A Little Brother of
Long Ago," Mrs. Wiggin sent an unpublished New England sketch
which she calls "A Village Stradivarius," and an attractive musical pro-
gram was presented.
Richmond, Fa.— At the National Convention for Teachers and Prin-
FIELD NOTES. 845
ciples, the resolution was adopted requesting state governments to make
the kindergarten a part of public school systems everywhere, and rec-
ommending that the methods of discipline and the processes of teach-
ing in public schools be improved along kindergai'ten lines.
The Mankato(Minn.) Normal school, under President Edward Sear-
ing, opens a regular kindergarten department the coming school year
in connection with a model kindergarten. Success to every such nor-
mal school effort, for it is at these centers that teachers in the bulk get
their standards and establish precedents and opinions.
All kindergartners visiting Chicago this summer should seek out
the Kindergarten Literature Company, in the Woman's Temple. It
will be one of the few kindergarten headquarters open throughout the
season. A hearty welcome is always to be found, and suggestions given
how to most practically put in the time about town.
Roseville, in.~\Ne have a flourishing school of seventeen pupils
Mothers, and teachers in the public school, seem to be interested in it,
and all have a desire to know more about it. We rejoice in the fact
that another town is maintaining a kindergarten. — Minnie Peet.
The annual summer school will be held at the University of Minne-
sota, Minneapolis, July 30 to August 24. There will be a special course
in kindergarten, music, physical culture, and primary methods. Miss
Lucy Wheelock, of Boston, will assist.
Mrs. Mary Boomer Page, of Chicago, escorts a party of eight kin-
dergartners through several European countries during the coming
summer. Mrs. S. S. Harriman, of Providence, R. I., will be one of the
number.
All Field Notes and reports must reach us by the 12th of the month
previous to publication. This is the latest possible date, unless we have
been informed beforehand of the exact day and length of report.
This June number of the Kindergarten Magazine may well be
placed in the hands of every public educator. You can provide one
teacher, at least, with a complimentary copy.
A SUMMER school to be held at Denver, Colo., beginning June 11, to
continue six weeks, will have a department of kindergarten, primary,
and connecting work.
The Union of Kindergartners for the Deaf will hold a summer meet-
ing at Chautauqua in July. This union is a branch to the International
Kindergarten Union.
There is a "Kate Douglas Wiggin Story-telhng Club" in Cleve-
Vol. 6-S3
846 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
land, O., an organization of first-grade teachers for the development of
the art of story-telling.
See our offer for prize articles, in the Practice Department of this is-
sue.
School of Myths. — The Chicago Kindergarten College will hold its
eighth literary school in the rooms of the college during Easter week of
1895. This is to be a school for the study of the myths, from which has
grown the art of the world, — ^ literature, sculpture, painting, music. The
object of this school is to bring out the educational value of the
"mythus," as the world myths are now called. Literary societies, study
clubs, and individuals desiring to take up a course of reading on this
very important subject can send to the Chicago Kindergarten College
for list of books or other information concerning the study of myths.
REDUCED RATES.
GOOD ONLY UNTIL JULY 1, 1894-.
Any subscription to the KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE and
CHILD-GARDEN, in one order, will be received on or before this
day at $2, by Kindergarten Literature Company, Woman's Temple,
Chicago. This offer is positively not good after July i, 1894.
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.
The Kindergarten Literature Co. have in press a little volume of
poems by Mrs. Emily Huntington Miller. " Songs from the Nest," is
the very appropriate name of a collection of short poems which pertain
entirely to the home nest of the child. They are all good, many of
them fine and strong, and some of them exquisitely beautiful. We wish
there had been one long one in the volume, telling, in Mrs. Miller's per-
fect verse, a story which mothers could read to their nestlings. No
other thing so delights the child heart as a story. " Tell me a story," is
the hungry cry of every child of every age of the world; and when that
story is told in rhyme, or in the best verse, it is doubly precious. All
children are natural poets, and it is the duty of the favored few who
have not had the poetic faculty educated out of them, to give back to
childhood that which charms and inspires. Mothers are poets, too, in
their thoughts of their children, and they one and all will heartily wel-
come this pure and lovely little volume of sweet communings with the
child and the angel that hovers above the home nest. It is such a book
as can be kept near the cradle with mother's Bible and her heart's fa-
vorites. It is exquisitely bound. Price 50c.
" Woman, and Her Place in a Free Society," by Edward Carpenter.
— A booklet containing some very good suggestions, which are thor-
oughly in accord with the material tendency of the times. Edward Car-
penter is a socialist, — a Christian socialist, — and is one of the soundest
thinkers and most elegant writers of that school of thought; but in this
little book he fails utterly to touch upon the spiritual significance of the
"woman question." This is not to be wondered at, for to study this
much-abused subject aright one needs the vision of a St. John the Di-
vine, to penetrate the error that has formed about it during all these
ages of darkness. We regret that Mr. Carpenter, who is so sincere and
genuine in all his writings, has not the insight of the Seer of Patmos on
this subject. But the book about woman must be written by a woman.
She is to be forced into self-revelation.
BOOKS FOR SUMMER
Reading, which amuse and entertain and yet give something in return
for the time spent upon them, are numerous enough; but much reading
is necessary to select from the mass those worth the money paid out,
cheap as such books are in these days. " The Prince of India " is pre-
eminently the novel that is both interesting and profitable reading.
Great world problems, in the historic setting of a time forever past, are
made to glow and throb with all the life and activity of the present. It
is a Christian novel in the true spiritual sense, and in the arraignment
of the two great and powerful churches, Roman and Greek, the author
848 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE.
holds the mirror up to unimpeachable history and throws down upon
the present a picture which must startle and make ashamed. This
novel came out just as the Parliament of Religions closed, and the time
could not have been more opportune. It will help to sustain and keep
alive the thought of unity set in motion by the great Parliament. The
love story is artistically set and well sustained, and the character of
Mirza, the Count di Corti, is destined to become one of the most attract-
ive in romance. The atmosphere of the book is psychological and oc-
cult, and between the lines it is easy to distinguish the framework and
setting of a greater and more significant book from the already world-
famous author of " Ben Hur."
" Marcella," by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, is a clever novel by a very
clever woman who is a keen intellectual observer of the social drama
that is being played in her country, but does not even suggest a philo-
sophic solution of the problems involved. The love story is sweet and
wholesome.
There is a decided tendency toward spiritual romancing in these
days, in all parts of the literary world. Of these writers Marie Corelli
stands at the head. She is said to be one of the "most brilliant butter-
flies in London's fashionable society." She is certainly a brilliant and
original writer of fanciful novels which are pure, healthful, and inspir-
ing. The favorite living novelist of the Queen of England, she is of
course very popular. To tired teachers the " Romance of Two Worlds,"
" Ardath," "The Soul of Lilith," and " Barabbas " will all prove more
than refreshing ^positively inspiring.
Books of poetry are scarce these days, because poets are scarce.
Mr. Swinburne still lives, and is a great poet, and his new volume,
"Astrophel and Other Poems," does him great credit.
Books that unfold the latent " philosophy of literature " are scarce
also; but we have here in our own country a modest man who is des-
tined to be placed in the first rank of authors of all nations. The
"Commentaries" of Mr. Denton J. Snider are too well known to need
mention at our hands, but his poems are as yet unknown. As an intro-
duction 1.0 Mr. Snider as a poet we suggest his little volume, "Homer
in Chios." If you are reading the "Prince of India "and the " Parlia-
ment of Religions," do not fail to read as a finishing touch to this stately
world movement, the " Meeting of Homer and David," in this incompa-
rable little volume, "Homer in Chios." Mr. Snider is a classicist, of
course, and has traveled in Greece, and the result is the best book of
travels ever written, — " A Walk in Hellas." In it the circle of the Greek
world is completed. We advise all teachers weary with the humdrum
of much work and little play (and less pay) to enter this charmed circle
with Mr. Snider, and make the tour of the Greek world during the sum-
mer vacation.
REDUCED RATES.
GOOD ONLY UNTIL JULY 1, 1 894.
Any subscription to the KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE and
CHILD-GARDEN, in one order, will be received on or before this
day at $2, by Kindergarten Literature Company, Woman's Temple,
Chicago. This offer is positively not good after July i, 1894.
PUBLISHERS' NOTES.
Diplomas, etc. — If you want Diplomas for Kindergarten Literature
Classes, or Certificates for shorter courses, Training School Stationery,
Programs, or anything of the kind, correspond with us. Have you
printed your announcements for next year's work? Let us send you
samples and prices. Address Kindergarten Literature Co., Woman's
Temple, Chicago.
We will send to anyone subscribing for Kindergarten Magazine,
and desiring "Symbolic Education," by Susan Blow, both for $2.50;
C/iz/d-Garden and " Symbolic Education," $2; Kindergarten Maga-
zine, Child-Garden, and "Symbolic Education," $3.25.
Positions Wanted. — Any kindergartner desiring to-announce herself
open to a position can have it announced in the pages of the Kinder-
garten Magazine for $1, the same to appear in each number until she
announces herself engaged.
Our new, fully illustrated Catalogue of books has appeared. It
contains portraits of authors never given before; also an essay on books
for children, and gives a completer list than ever, descriptive of con-
tents and purposes of books given. Send, stamp for a copy.
Always. — Subscriptions are stopped on expiration, the last number
being marked, "With this number your subscription expires," and a
return subscription blank inclosed.
Always. — Our readers who change their addresses should imme-
diately notify us of same and save the return of their mail to us. State
both the new and the old location. It saves time and trouble.
Always — Send your subscription made payable to the Kindergarten
Literature Co., Woman's Temple, Chicago, 111., either by money order,
express order, postal note, or draft. (No foreign stamps received.)
850 KINDERGARTEN MAGAZINE,
Bound Volumes. — Vols. IV, V, and VI, handsomely bound in fine
silk cloth, giving the full year's work in compact shape, each $3.
Wanted — January, 1893, and March, 1893, numbers of Child-Garden.
Other numbers exchanged for them.
There are only a few copies of Vol. I of Child-Gardeji to be had.
They are now bound, and being rapidly exhausted. We desire to give
our readers the first chance at purchasing them. Send for it before
they are all gone. Price $2.
Child-Garden Samples. — Send in lists of mothers with young chil-
dren who would be glad to receive this magazine for their little ones.
Remember some child's birthday with a gift of Child-Garden, only %\
per year.
We want our readers to know that the printing and binding depart-
ment of the Kindergarten Literature Company is in operation and ex-
cellently equipped for the getting out of all kinds of books and miscel-
laneous printing. Send for estimates and information.
Wanted — Back numbers of Kindergarten Magazine. We will
exchange any other number you want in Vols. IV, V, or VI, or any books
in our catalogue, for any back numbers of Vols. I, II, or III, except Vol.
I, No. 12; Vol. II, Nos. 3 and 11; Vol. Ill, No. 10. Address Kindergar-
ten Literature Co., Chicago.
The attention of teachers in public and private schools is called to
the opportunity afforded by the destruction of the World's Fair build-
ings to obtain excellent examples of architectural details in staff work.
It is possible to obtain at relatively small expense a variety of such
examples, including capitals, friezes, rosettes, brackets, etc., which,
after being cleaned and coated with alabastine (recipe for which will be
sent), will serve as useful a purpose for art instruction as casts which
would probably cost ten times as much. They are just as artistic as
these expensive casts, and would have an added value on account of
their association with the beautiful "White City." Any who desire in-
formation regarding these specimens of staff work, cost of same, etc.,
should correspond with Miss Ida M. Condit, 455/^ Elm street, Chicago.
Valuable but not costly. — It may save you a great deal of trouble in
cooking. Try it. We refer to the Gail Borden Eagle Brand Condensed
Milk, regarded by most housekeepers as absolutely essential in culinary
uses, and- unsurpassed in coffee. All Grocers and Druggists sell the
Eagle Brand.
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