The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-09-28
l.ithn,aul lIspatfk
WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER %, 1870.

THE CIRCULATION OF THE DI-PATCH
IS LARGER THAN THE COMBINED CIR
CULATiON OF ALL TIE OTHER DAILY
NEWSPAPERS OF THE CITY.
Letter from Roston-About Schools.
Correspondence Of the Richmond Dispatch
BosToN, Sept. Il, 1870.
came hither mainly to see what progress
had been made during the last decade In
educational and.s0cial matters, and | found
the idea had developed itself in New Eng
iahd That they had not reached the ultima
th"te OF education, but that there were
very serious characteristic defects in the
New England system, which some were
frank and modest enough to suggest that
we, VINO are reconstructang and building up
our educational system in the South, might
avoid. The great point hitherto made here
has been to cultivate the intellect, rather to
the exclusion of moral culture, which at
least has been held secondary. They say
strangely neglected, and that artistic ability
has not been kept in any fair ratio to the
Knowing faculties, and this always prevents
the development of that contentment of
mind which precludes love of gambling
and makes people at home in nature. No
thing is worse than knowledge unapDlied,
while on the contrary, to. keen tie arts of
production on q level with the power to de-
sign has most saIl!tary moral influence,
giving conscious dignity and self.respect.
Industrial education is the great word
nov, and it is q suggestive fact, that an
aged mechanic, Mr.. Simmons. who, il Is said.
originated the trade in reaty-made clothing,
has just died In Boston millionaire, and
besides leaving to each Of his two children
an income Of $4,000 per year, has be-
queathed more than a illion of dollars to
found an industrial school for women, to
give them thorough education in oil indus
trial arts, by which they may earn n living,
including printing, telegraphinS, drawing,
designing, music, and medicine-in short,
whatever it is compatible with women's
powers to do. lie has been planning out
this for several years, and has himself made
investments so as to afford sufficient income
to make this education perpetual and also
accessible even to the poor. He was by
birth Rhode Islander, and that little Stale
has always cherished some special princi-
pies, one Of which is that great institutions
should be founded. not bv Governments as
such. but by individuals. The State nor
NAL schools Of Massachusetts owe their
origin to the private endowment of cer-
tain Mr.. Dwight, though they are adopted
and supported now By the State, and have
spread into every State North and many of
the Southern States within the last thirty
years. In Worcester is an industrial school
for men, founded mainly by one man, but
which is also supported by that city.
Another new institution, which is spread
ing, is the kindergarten, which really is the
true primary school, for it accepts the child
as an embryo artist, and therefore under
takes TO train his activity into production
Of things more within the sphere Of the
childish fancy, instead Of beginning, as we
commonly do, with paralysing all his spon-
taneous play. in order to teach him to
read--a thing which the friends of this sys-
tenn say ought not to be begun till the facul-
ties Of the child are trained, all the senses
sharpened to perceive things in their indi-
viduaitics and vital connections, and their
hands to execute the conceptions Of their
minds; and this is only done by action.
TO make M arrangement Of simple forms,
and, above all, to produce little artistic
things. seems to the child the most delight
full play but if superintended by person
who understands the laws Of symmetry and
organization, it is really artistic work, and
naturally interests the little worker to in
vestigate the materials used, and to ap-
preciate the virtue of laws and conditions,
besides producing habits of industry and
attention.
But it is a very nice art TO superintend
the kindergarten. because the teacher
must understand the generation of symmet-
rical form and the laws Of vital growth, 80
a> TO suggest the order Of what the child
does step by step. There is, therefore, just
now great interest here to train the teach
ers. A friend of mine, who became inter-
ested in this subject by reading, and made
some practical attempts to carry out the
principle without having also mastered the
processes in which Froebel, the discoverer
Of this method, formulated its principles.
went to Europe to study the kindergartens
founded by the master and some OF his chief
pupils. She told me that for many years
there was an injunction against kindergar-
ten in Prussia on account of its obvious
democratic tendencies, but that remarka-
BILE woman, the Baroness Marenholtz Bu-
low, of Berlin, made it the work Of her life
to show that this system had no special re-
lution to political or ecclesiastical forms,
but was Il method ''for the regeneration Of
mankind - got the Injunction taken OFT,
so that now there were tortyaeight Kin
dergarten IN Berlin alone, to say nothing OF
other great cities in Germany, Belgium, and
Switzerland, and Il beginning has been
made in Italy and Russia. She says that
Yictoria's daughter, the Crown Princes
wife, had quite ga contest with the old re-
dictionary Queen Dowager in her determine
ton to have her children educated on the
kindergarten principle" and this had given
it of late years quite prestige. In 1851 she
invited the Princess Helenia, of Russia, to
spend the winter with her and study into
it. and in consequence the latter is getting
it introduced into st. Petersburg.
Hereafter I will tell you something in
connection with this. which opens on my
mind quite Il vista OF kindergartens in the
will follow it with another, in which
shall have more to say on this subject. p.