The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-03-12
KINDERGARTEN.
BY BARONESS MARENBoLrz BULow -
TRANSLATED ny MISS z. P. PEABODY.

BY BARONESS MARENBoLTz BULow - 8
TRANSLATED BY MISS E. P. PEABODY. !
Within the last twenty years the kim
Iergartens (childs- eardens) of Froebel have
,een established in the larger part OF
Germany and other European countries,
and are still spreading, in spite Of numer
opponents. New oues are opening
avery year, and those already found are
increasing in the number of pupils. They
answer, therefore, 10 q demand OF
time; and their usefulness Is proved
by the pupils nurtured in them.
WHAT Is A FOR THE KINDERaAR.
- H1a TEN.
But we must not confound them with
mere Splay-schools' for the children of
the rich, or asylums for those of the poor;
to do this, is to look at them superhciaily.
They are play schools, it is true. since
children play in them and asylums, for
children are protected in them from dan
gers and il-treatment. But the child
garden has quite q different and more
comprehensive aim. If it were merely a
school of perfected play, it could not be
one Of the most important institutions OF
the age. But that is its claim, and moth
in I less. What legitimates this claim
This essential fact, that Frobel recognized
as no one else had done before him, the
needs of The child in the earliest stages of
ITS life. and. at the same time. discovered
the means of satisfying these needs. How
are these needs OF the child to be known 2
By its manifestations-those which espe
rially characterize childhood its spontan-
cons acts, which are most fully shown In
he plavs of children Every child-at
least every healthy chIld-plays. Play 10
The only voluntary action OF which 1t is
capable. A child who does not play, or Is
prevented from playing. ceases TO be a
growing child, and becomes a stunted
man.
Every child incessantly asks "What is
this 2" and What ia that 2" Where did
this come from o. whats the use of that7"
What's this made Off" These questions
~concern real things, concrete objects that
are before the chIld's eye. As yet he has
neither ideas nor conceptions nor the pow,
er Of making abstraction. For this rea-
son everything used for his instruction
should be actual objects. No books nor
words uEaccompanied by things no les.
sons. no instructions properly so called.
belong to the child garden. All games
for teaching history, reading, writing, and
geography. aud the use of which is con-
stantly increasing, are mostly q monotou-
Gus repetition of u and the same process.
fettering the productive powers instead Of
giving them scope.
On the contrary, in child gardens, the
children ara constantly directedt to produc-
ton. Everything they use impels them
to it. They see nothing which does not
excite the instinct of activity. the impulse
A----f- UTL-AL-- IL
build or draw, or plat or cut, or model
in clay, they must do everything by them
selves; they must draw everything from
their own resources, and this they like to
do. Nothing vexes a bright child so much
as to have an adult do the work that he
feels he can do himself. That which de-
mands particularly the application Of
their intellectual faculties is the getting
acquainted With their materials and their
properties, especially because they must
learn to know them by their use. A GER
tain amount Of oral teaching is, however
necessary for the sake Of indispensable
explanation we can not reduce every
thing to pure experiment. But these ex-
plantations should always be associated
with the object itself. and never given
without its presence. ThiRgs serve to an
swer the questions the child himself puts
whea he wishes to know what q thing is.
how it Is, and where it comes from. No
human instinct is earlier ormore man.
ifested Ia children than that of sociability.
The infant in the cradle cries when be
thinks himself alone, and is quieted at the
slightest friendly word, because he then
thinks himself safe in the society of beings
like himself. But the society of grown
up persons does not satisfy him he needs
the society of other children, that is to
say, his equals.
In the midst of grown persons he has
only q subordinate position. An only
child is always q spoilt child. and carries
with him through life the stamp of his is.
~olatiou, he takes on old airs of premature
wisdom, is like fruit mellew before ripe
kSueh q child is without simplicity, unless
I'VE can make up to him the brothers and
sisters he lacks by the child garden. The
child only among other children is truly
himself In that companionship alone hG
~iearns order, subordination, the value o.
things, and by reaction of things is hi
character formed. In this community o
life he learns to know the bad side of ca
price and w~illfulness, and he soen per
ceives that true liberty implies 3 law anc
{ demands that each one should consider
the rights of Others. The life of ordinary
schools gives doubtless similar results, bu'
% far less extent. Speaking truly, they
scarcely ever do, excepting In school re,
cesses and intervals, and on the way Il
and fro. when the companionship and in.
timacIes take place Really it islin place
where children Join together to play, tina
We see formed those habits Of life In com
muniLy, those ties of juvenile association
which have need of movement and actor
to give full result. The advantages tina.
may come from public rendezvous wher,
children 60 TO play are counterbalanced by
disadvantages. The good that cnildrel
gain in this contact with their equals j
vItiated by examples OF rudeness and i'm,
morality. Morality and liberty regain il
n society of grown persons only so far a
that society Is conformed to certain laws
Just as necessary are such laws in assem-
blies Of children, to ave them from tn
rude caprice Of individuals only this Law
should be of such nature that liberty o
movement is not constrained thereby, bu
on the contrary, permitted TO have full
scope. -n-
A very important element in education
the most important of all for morsl devel
n spment, is the hsbit Of acting seriously il
common, Of using WORK under the form o
play as a means OF recreation and pleasure
, The child garden offers this to earlies
childhood and marks out a way Tor 1t later
1t is absolutely necessary to create
: world in immature for these little one
|. where everything primitive in their ma
; ture may be free This must be done
we wish to see the character formed o
native originality and vigor, IN full poss
ession of their individuality within an,
t without.