The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-25
THE AMERICAN KINDERGARTEN
IBoston Transcrips.l

uSutCk, ~hhtA SAA ySAtS VA @BG. hhCy had not beep ID the house long before tue little girl became an object of extreme interest, not only to the several children there, but to one who was stopping with Dr. Solser while engaged in historical studies, Miss E1aoe,h Peabody. She was particularly struck ~i;a the Po~sT which the child had over the childrea ln completely winning ,her attention. They would follow her wherever she went, and were willing to do wh atever she asked, One day Mss Peabody round the little visitor with cup of water. some sticks and some peas. She had obtained these from Mrs SolSer, and with circle of brigh, eyes and willing fingers around her, vas i!!ustrassng how the sticks could he put into the wet pess--,hat is, into the f>shy part so that they could in Ike a char. This was the end to De gained She created such an interest among the chil iren that, of course, each wanted to make one. Alter Miss Peabody had watched them as they intelhgently fol- lowed the directions of their little teacher, she asked the child where she had learned all this. In the kinders arten," was the reply. Kindergarten Whats that?" asked Mss Peabody, having never heard the word before. The chtid looked surprised that any one, especially grown up woman, could be ignorant of what she had al~ays kno~n; then told her what she knew, sd i,ng, Mother will tell you ever so much more ii you ask her."
 Now, M,ss Peabody kpew what that meant ; for all her early years were spen, in the atm osphere where mother was a synonym for all knowledge and help. Having been born when her mother was keeping the boarding schsol in Blllerica ,n I8o4 which she continued more or less Atser the family moved to Salem, some four years later she was brought up ia home where mother and father were her only teachers, her mother teach ing her the Enghsh stu ud,es. and her father m the interim Of his professional duties l. ltln. As dreamy, thoughtful child of rich sensIbillties, she drank in much of this spirit af teaching around her Thus she was enabled at sixteen, when the family moved to Lancaster, Massachusetts, and circumstances needed her help, to open a school ID their house, which she endeavored to make AS much home sch 'ol as possible. Two years later she went to Boston, where, still im- oued with her own ideas of teaching. she remained year. when faillng health led her to spending the next two years on the Kenneoec river, in M line, where she eng aged in more or less teaching. Alter spending the next year and half in Brookhne, keeping school in partner snip with her sister M IY-atterwArd Mrs. Horace Nj inn -s sine returned to Boston to az Aln open a school, with a desire 10 take only tn .se who had leirned nothing more than to read fluently. This she continued with good success for seven years
 Although Dr. B.rrard. Of Hartford, Com con Adered these efforts of young teacher worthy a le,fet published from his American Journal of EdnfdIioS, yet Mss Peabody was not s4lished. Her pet the ores would not assume the practical expression by which she could bring the children 10 do and to think for them selves. In the years that followed, when other work than school teaching came to ner, when her wise counsels and unSelfish life were so much n her family, she longed for more light by which thus could DC done. And the reflection of this hght nov burst upon her when she saw in this 5 :hurz child ,he very seii-directive power which she her,etf Id so desired to brlng out in children. It was revelation to her. She was eager and ready to learn its secret. S>, hAvlag heard the childs story, she dld what she told her ts do- went to her mother. Your child is a liule mira :le," sne said to the mother in her enthusiasm. "On, no" replied Mrs. s :nutz; "sse has only been brought up
 in Froeoe's idea, iu which 1 believe" " Froebei who is he f' asked Mss Pea body Then Mrs Schurz told her of nun, and of the valuable lectures which she had heard Froeoel deliver m Hambur, some nine years Def re (two years before his dea,h) Sac gave her his E iuca- ton of N .nkind." But, as it happened, Il WAS only the preface, not the book itself whl h contained nis system. Nov, Mss Peaoody really found nothing new ln tnis. Indeed, all her life she had been promulganng as best she could, the very spirit she found there. Bat it was a joy to see her o~n lde 4s thus met, to see that toe tornation of the uoderst audtng must precede, ts II were, tae inform 4uon of the mlnd. Sle was delighted to fl nd that what had been callei her visions, Froe5e! had found necessary to make practical. Sae was all the more im- pressed from the fact that aoout thus tune she heard from another source, from Paris, of Froeoel and his work.
 What she gs'ned from this preface so strengthened her faith that. with some practi al details which she had learned from Mrs Schurz she decided to go im- mediaiely to work So in a very short lime she, wl;h the help of lady of Quaker breeding, opened kinder arten.
 ney m ide an attra tive school of my scholars Whenever their attempts ended in confused jArgon. the Spanish Retreat came forth from the piano with tremendous power 10 give order and peace for at the sound of that the child. ren would get into line aad march. rhs, Miss Peabody laughingiy says, happened rather oftener ounng the session than sue