The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-07-31
American In.tI,ute of instruction.

AT meeting of this body, held recently,
a paper on .'Kindcrgartcning the Gospel
for Children" was read by Miss Elizabeth
p. Peabody, of Cambridge. After review
Z ing the originof the kindergarten and Civ
ing various theories in reference to it, Miss
Peabody exhibited specimens Of the work
executed by children IN school at Dres-
den, and gave very interesting description
of the method of education there in use.
She closed as follows: ~
Ii all teachers had the philosophy of
Froebel, and children, before being sent to
the primary schools for Instruction., were
prepared in the Kindergarten by a moral
discipline involving the experimental know
ledge that they must needs gain by the
well-thought-out exercises that engage their
activities, affection and thinking faculty,
and also by that use and understanding of
language which must needs come from the
entirely oral teaching of the kindergarten,
1.-The whole fabric of education would very
soon feel the influence, for it would be alive
from the foundation. fe
Then and not till then would education
"a be worth all the money it costs, and more
would be gladly appropriated. Horace
Mann said twenty years ago: 1.-The minds
of the incoming generation are as free from
the possession of positive error as OF posi-
tive truth, and they have capacities that
DggInay be qualified to- discriminate between
ei them. AAInstil into them the love ofAtruth,
as the supreme good teach them as mat
ter of conscience and duty never to rehearse
n WHAT'S not understood; lead them from
antecedent to sequence, from cause to eff
feet, from elements to combinations and
minds will be healed which will discover
truth, not because they were originally
stronger or better minds, but because from
their position it will be more easy to dis
y Germ it." ' o1tl
Now kindergartening will effect this end,
because the child is conscious self-educa-
tor and moral agent from the beginning pro-
" vided the kindergartener is competent to the
conversation. The nature is set into opera
ton in selfpreserying and even selt-re-
newing instead of self-destructVe way
and every child born may become bene-
ficent factor in human society. And GER
tainly this is the pressing necessity of our
time. for to quote another impressive pas
sage from Horace MannA"Our republican
edifice at this time, in present fact ano
truth, is not sustained by those columns o
solid and evcr-enduring adamant-intelli
gence and virtue Its various parts are
only just clinging together by that remark
: able COHESION mutual bearing and support
which unsound portions of structure MAJ
impart to each other, and which, as every
mechanic we'll knows. will for a time hole
the rotten materials of an edifice together
although not one of its timbers could sup
port its own weight and unless, therefore
.,o q new sub-structure can be placed beneath
every buttress and angle Of the boosted
temple of liberty it will soon totter and fall
and bury all indwellers in its. ruins"
This sub-structure must be moral edu
cation. AS the gospel preached to mel
who have grown up in world lying il
darkness and sin, was repent and reform
and be forgiven, soithe gospel for chitdre,.
whom Christ pronounced already of tn
kingdom of heaven, and set i'll the midst o
his disciples, to show them that before the,
j. could e,iter-much more take the highes
places in it-they must become as littl
children is, to keep the heart diligently, TO
i out of it are the issues of life, and form
'g 6 the mind in the light of that wisdom whcl
makes life q blessing to ourselves ant
The reading of this paper was followe
q by discussion, which brought out man
- facts concerning kindergarten schools
Germany. bios niep 91s 1855 lif u