Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-04-29
STUDY A DELIGHT.
THE BUSY ROUND OF CHILD LIFE IN A
PHILADELPHIA KINDERGARTEN.

4 AsGmOtcu anu A08S8nb A2Osho<As CsAOSeA-
tuted-''The Scissors Grinder''-Color
| sons-Scope and Purpose.
Thirty minute fragments Of humanity sat
| in thirty dolls chairs and sang like thirty
cherubims with wry necks.
Good St Nicholas" they chorused, boy
and girlfully, and the principal, who's soft
eyes and oval face Pestalozn might have
had in mind when be wrote "How Gertrude
Teaches Her Children" turned around and
explained that the wry-neckedness was the
result Of the dramatic principle in object
teaching. The thirty cherubs were listen
ing for Good St Nicholas up the
chimney.
snow, children said the principal when
the wry-necked chorus way over, Il want
you to tell me what these colors ara" The
young lady drew a rainbow Of zephyr wool
out Of a drawer in her desk and began to
hold up half-ounce fragments Of it for the
inspection of tho dolls tea party in the
chairs.
Whats this.' she asked, dangling
skein Of the hue Of the moon in a sickly last
quarter. It's a bad yellowish red" whis-
pered one Of the visitors Orange said
Cherub No 8 "You see," said the superin-
tsndent to the visitor who had whispered
red, that the children are taught to dis
tinguish shades as well as colors They can
combine them, too" Thereupon the chill
dren went to work and disposed Of primary
colors into secondary blendings in manner
that would shortly have rid Lady Jane of
the distressing uniforms Of the heavy
dragons
LIKE LOT OF TOY SOLDIERS.
Then the children all get up from their
ri n tv-z o. a. 49,
the piano. They began marking time at
first, like lot of little toy soldiers, only
they bent their knees They are taught to
do that said the superintendent 1t does
away with that ungraceful swaying Of the
body which is so common" While the rest
of the infantry were on the march a detail
OF four began quietly removing the dolls
chairs to a couple of dolls tables on each
side of the room By the time they had
completed their duty the march had ceased
and the squad We're halted in circle about
the central pillar. MARY, come here.
want you to choose game for me" said
the superintendent. And a fiaxen haired
tot in a checked pinafore toddled across the
floor and was lifted up on the platform,
whose e,ninence of a foot and O half was
quite too much for her legs
The superintendent whispered into the
midget's ear and the midget returned to her
place in the circle important with Official
confidence. Scissors grinder" she whis-
pered up into the principals apron, and
then the principal and the assistant and all
the midgets stamped their feet in truly
aweinspiring manner and burst into bal
lad descriptive of the deeds of the scissors
grinder. They worked his treadle, they
held his blades to the whiriing stone
"A 49,,
sang of the farmer. They moved his grain
and bound his wheat in sheaves, and so
great was the agricultural vehemencs of a
hhput with tousled bang that she worked
her chubby right shoulder nearly out of her
plaid frock- There was bunch of bright
ribbons looped on HOOK at the top of the
pillar, and when the children had descrip-
lively balladed the farmer, the cooper and
a number of other worthy toilers the princi-
Pal stood on tiptoe and took down the ends
of the ribbons from the hook. You see
they had color lesson said the super:n- |
tendeDt, and the games are always made |
to follow the lesson as possible. This is their !!
color song.
Each pupil was handed the end of q rib |
bon, and their song began again as they cir |
cled about the pillars When the presens |
generation was in the kindergarten ago |
Maggie Mitchell had play called Fan |
chon, the Cricket - in which peasants danced |
Just such dance as the children did. Their |
song was devoted to the description of the |
colors, and as the name of each color was |
called the child who held the end of its rib |
bon stepped out from the inner circle, and |
SO the throng Of singing children widenei |
out like the ripples that follow the splash OF |
a stone in the water, and a gay braid Of |
bright ribbons grew with their singing |
about the pillar.
THE WHOLE SCOPE AND PURPOSE
Rev Charles q. Ames said in 1854 Of the |
kindergartens: The first business is to
catch the children, the next bust |
ness in handling one class of children, is to
wash their hands and faces and teach them |
to respect their own bodies" It'll a mistaken
notion held by good many that in the
kindergartens lessons are taught and learned
The whole scope and purposes 81 the baby |
schools is to develop the faculties and to
foster the better instincts Mr.. Ames in
the the same pamphlet, quotes, apropos of |
the civilizing influences Of the sub primary i
society's work: Frank Stockton's theory /
Of the training OF the parents by the child |
rem is admiralty illustrated here" City |
missionaries and workers among the poor /
creeds and kinds testify to the evangel OF /
cleanliness, courtesy, order, clean speaking |
and thinking and general moral health |
brought into hundreds Of homes from the |
schools
1t is the method of Froebel that is fol- |
lowed in the schools, but it was PeStalozzi |
who announced the principle that ''the train |
ing of the whole man, the sympathetic APP |
plication OF the teacher to the taught" was |
the basis of all teaching He it was who |
wrote this description of his school at Stanz: |
Il was from morning till evening almost |
alone with them Everything which was |
done for their body with soul proceeded |
from my hand Every assistance, every |
help in time of need, every teaching which |
they received came Immediately from Inc |
Ny hand lay in their hand, my eye rested |
on their eye, my tears flowed with theirs. /
and my laughter accompanied theirs They |
were out of the world they were out Of |
Stanz; they were with me and | was them
Their soup was mine. their drink was mine
had nothing. l had no housekeeping, no |
friend. no servants around me. l had them
alone Were they well, | stood among them;
were they ill, / was at their side. l slept in |
the middle of them / was the last who
went to bed at night, the first who rose in
the morning. Even in bed prayed and
taught with them until they were asleep |
They wished it to he so"
Such was the full ideal of a kindergarten 1
teacher set by the founder of the system in |
l.A-Philadelphia Press