The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-05-31
CHURCH. KLNDERGARTEMS.


Miss Elizabeth P, Peabody, daughter
of Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, and sister of
and co'author with Mrs. Horace Mann,
addressed small audience in the An
thon Memorial Church Sunday.school
room on "Kindergartens" yesterday af
ternoon. The duty laid down for moth.
ers by Froebel, that they should develop
their children until seven years old, was,
she said, more than each mother could
carry out. 1t would require separate
mother for each child. He first took
children at ten years old, then at earlier
ages, till he went back TO take them from
the mothers arms. The mother must
have help, and several children three
years old were brought together. Here
were all the elements of the kindeIgar-
ten. The difficulty was to obtain women
for in Germany they could not do any
thing for money without losing CASTE
hence at first, with few exceptions, Froe-
bel's kindergarners were peasant women.
Miss Peabody gave some Of her exper.
ience in her Boston kindergarten-her
| difficulties with the school committees
involving the question of the Bible in the
schools. The history of the establish
ment and workings of the st. Louis kim
dergartens under the charge of Miss
Blow, wealthy lady of great ability and
zeal who used her own means in the
work, was given in detail. The saving
in wear and tear of books, apparatus and
furniture by the kindergarten children,
when they became pupils of the st. Louis
public schools more than covered, she
said, the whole expense of the kinder
garten instruction. The children are
taught how to govern themselves. Their
moral natures, which are 30 often utterly
neglected at home, are cultivated first,
until they come to love and prefer to
practice the proper behavior to one an
other, and to all with whom they come
in contact. The st. Louis kindergartens
had been successful in every sense of the
word, and had been cordially approved
by the City superintendent of Schools.
The kindergarten should be more nur-
sery than a school. Froebels law of
contrast and connection must be contin-
ually applied. A child shown how to do
a thing will do it thereafter mechanically
by memory, and will exercise the pow
ers of thought very little; whereas, being
led to do thing themselves, stimulates
their thinking powers wonderfully; they
become inventors instead of imitators.
The movement plays" make children
gentle and humane, and generation of
children thus developed would take away
the need for a society for the prevention
of cruelty to animals. The instinct for
the earth, leading children into mud.pie
making and the like, needs to be direct
ed, for if unCutivated, it dies out and
leaves the individual the worse without
it.
"But how" asked Miss Peabody, "Can
kindergNrtens be established throughout
the land? There is not a Miss Blow,
with her intelligence, interest and mon
ey for every town; and school commit
tees are usually so engrossed in politics
that little can be expected from them.
But there is another way. Let every
church maintain its own kindergarten,
and thus avoid the religious difficulty
before mentioned"
The audience listened attentively for
an hour and hall, and were anxious to
hear more, which Miss Peabody prom.
ised to tell them at some future time.-
N. Y. World, 2lSt.