Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1871-07-22
Some Thoughts on kindergarten.
BY EMMA C wnIPPLE.

| NUMBER ONE.
wish to present 10 your readers
some remarks on an inprov, ,ment which
bears Oh the welfare of mankind
Wherever the .tanity exists, wherever
mother and child are found, there will
the message have to give prove a bless
ing and a JOY to all who open ear and
heart to receive. | believe the time will
come when the name of Frederic Froe.
bel will be held AS dear as the most cher.
| ished names We keep in our memories
| and hearts. 1t was his clear head and
loving heart which made his discovery,
after so many ages of mistakes. that lie
heavenly Father hne,c just what amount
OF activity, what degree of curiosity
was needed, to enable child to become
what lie W; s intended, the head of Great.
ed beings. To repress unduIy, oI to let
run to waste this principle of activity,
has been the wasleiul policy of those
who have held in charge the training OF
children, from age TO age. AT last, the
Divine wisdom has found its vindication,
and child is discovered to be endowed
with precisely the amount of the quail
ties needed to develop his soul and body
i'll harmonious proportions.
Froebe accepts the TACT that the first
impulse of the child, after it has fairly
opened its eyes on the world, is to touch
everything, taste everything it touches,
in fact to experiment on every substance
in its reach. To accept this filcI-to util-
ize this impulse is certainly more sensi-
ble method than repression, or allowing
/ f.,p rInt la b,, .,l II
speedily become mischievous, the terror
of orderly people, and the dispair of
mothers, who, being put to their wits
ends, turn them loose, which results in
the forming of irregular modes of activ-
ily. Froebel says activity degenerdtes
if not developed in orderly me hods !;
and carrying out this idea, Froebel dem
onstraled that a child, even at three
years old, may be led to find greater
pleasure in creating after an orderly
method than in destroying. He further
the use of lhs hand during the first six
or seven years, is wrong to the child.
NuMBER TWO
Very little appears to be known in
this country about FroebeI, and it is due
10 those who are asked to accept his sys
TEN, to say something Of the man, and
how he came To the conclusions and the
oIies which are called his system of edu-
cation. He was the son of an orthodox
Protestant clergyman in Tburingia, and
was born in 1882. The loss of his moth
er in early infancy was the means of his
being much left to the care of domestics
and the elder brothers Of the family. A
strong tie was formed between the broth
ers, which remained in their mature
lives. The stcp-mother which came into
this family, at first, was kind to the
inotheress Frederick, but when a child
OF her own came to share her cares and
love, she was harsh and severe, and in a
degree estranged even his father from
his child. The outward condition of his
early years had little in them to foster
esthetic tastes. Living in q narrow street
in city, without either toys or sympa-
thy, he early began To seek occupation
for himself; and when his fathers church
was under repairs, he attempted to imi-
tate the workmen, but finding the stones
too large and unmanageable for his little
hands, he gave up in dispair, and said
"that children had ought to have nice
mat erials provided to work with.' Sure
iy, this child was "father TO the man"
Froebel, whose long life was'a study
how to adopt the best means to the END
Of sdgpstipg all children IN the ,ilhfeer
,fH r. ef1l''.h