Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-06-09
KiNDERGaRTENs.
MRS. SARAH B. COUPER'S LECT-
URE ON THE SUBJECT.
The Necessity of Adding this Prac-
teal Department of Education
to Present Methods.

-tIAo. l1d1 al - NOOPSl, III ueI leclure
the Congregational Church in this city Oh
last Tuesday evening, on the subject o
kindergartens, said in the course of he
lecture
The hope Of the world lies in the chill
dren. The hope of Sacramentos futur,
lies in the little children that throng hel
streets to-day. Is it small question then
What shall we do with our children p
we talk vast deal about reformation and
restoration, but it is better to begin at the
beginning and use prevention. The best
physicians are not those who follow disease
alone, but those who, as far as possible, go
ahead and prevent it. They seek to teach
the community the laws of health-how
not to get sick
Nothing but virtue and intelligence can
save Republic from ending in despotism,
anarchy and corruption. There must be
virtue and genuine character, and since
virtue is secured by early training and
habit, the children of our commonwealth
mutt be trained in ways of honesty, indus
try and self-control. 1t matters not who
they are or where they are, the State
cannot afford to let them grow up in ignor-
ance and crime. We have a vast number
of humane institutions for the reclamation
and recovery of the hayward and the
erring. We have reformatory institutions.
prisons, iails and houses of correction. and
l bless God for every one of these agencies.
But, after all, these are but repair shops.
Their work Is secondary, not primal. 1t is
trying to straighten the crooked Tree. 1t is
seeking TO strengthen faulty foundation.
How much better it is to build new
structures than to repair old ones How
much more satisfactory to make new wag-
ons than to be forever patching up the
stumbling, rambling old vehicles. 1t is
FAR better to begin at the beginning. This
is the work of the kindergarten.
There is, to-day, a fair white star rising
above the horizon of the educational
world, that is destined to do much toward
the solution of this knotty problem,
" What shall we do with GU BOYS and
girls p refer to the pronounced and in
creasing tendency toward technical educa-
ton for the young. The feeling is abroad
1t Is IN the common air, that the education
OF the future must develop the industrial
capacity Of the masses, thus leading to
virtue, prosperity and place. What shall
be done with our boys and girls? Educate
them for work, for action, for industry,
cultivate their powers for creating and
organizing, and then the desire for doing
and accomplishing, will take the place Of
the desire for having and getting.
We contend that the kindergarten is
the only true foundation for industrial ed
ucation. The kindergarten is the best
agency for setting in motion the physical,
mental and moral machinery of the little
child, that it may do its own work in its
own way. II is the rain and dew and sun
to evoke the sleeping germ and bring it
into self-activity and growth. 1t is teach
ing the little child to teach himself. The
kindergarten devotes itself more to ideas
thln 10 words; more to things than to
books. Children are taught words too
much, while they fail to catch ideas. Give
child ideas. The world does not
need fine rhetoric-yaluable as that is
half IS much as it needs practi-
cal, useful ideas, A famous inventors
counsel to young man was STUDY to
have ideas. my boy, study to have ideas |
have always found, if | had an idea,
could express it on a single with piece
OF chalk, and let craftsman work it out
handsomely and according to rule | gem
orally had ideas enough TO keep three or
four draughtsmen busy. You can always
hire draughtsmen, but you cannot hire
ideas. Study to have ideas, my boy !o
The man should be the master,
not the slave of his learn.
ing, and whether he is the one
or the other, depends very largely on the
way his knowledge has been gained. 1t is
hot 70, 10 /
withthe capacity to usei c-eatively, than to
be the unproductive carrier OF all the learn
ing IN the libraries. Study to have ideasl
Life will give no end of opportunities for
using them. Tia. is exactly the aim of
the kindergarten-to make the mind ere
atlve, to stimulate thought, to beget ideas.
Habits of observation are cultivated. OBJ
serving Is more than seeing. The child in
the kindergarten is taught to observe
that Is, notice with attention-to see truly.
What he learns in the school-room is cal
Culated TO make him keep his eyes wide
open to the world about him. He is
taught to think, and that is the primal
thing The Kindergarten makes the
knowledge of ideas wait upon the lnowl-
edge OF facts-.lust rs it subordinates the
cultivation TO the development of faculty.
The senses are sharpened, the hands are
trained and the body is made 1.-the and
active. The gifts and occupations repre-
sent every kind of technical activity. The
children mast work for what they get.
They learn through doing. They thus
develop patience, perseverance, skill and
will power. They are encouraged by every
fresh achievement. What they know they
must know thoroughly and accurately.
Every element Of knowledge is transformed
into an element Of creation. The mind
aSsimilates what it receives, lust as a
healthy organism assimilates its food and
is nourished thereby. In his occupations
in the kindergarten the child is required
to handle, reconstruct, combine and create
Let the very playthings of your children
have bearing upon the life and work of
the coming man." said Aristotle. 1t is
early training that makes the master. This
universal instinct of play in the child
means something. II should be turned to
good account. 1t should be made con-
structive in its outcome instead of destruc-
tive. This restless activity of the child is
the foundation of the indefatigable enter
prise OF the man. This habit of work must
be formed early in life il we would have it
plCsSuiS. AtltNllN Is rue law OF 0eaith-
full childhood. Turn it to good account !
The pereeptive faculties in well-endowed
child are far in excess of the reflective fac
ulties. He sees everything. He wants to
know about everything. He will find out
if he can.
Governor Stanford struck the keynote
when he said that he believed the surest
foundation on which any educational
structure could rest was the rock of thor
Ough Kindergarten training, begun at the
earliest possible age At the age when
moral and industrious habits are most
easily formed, the taste improved and the
finer feelings which give fiber to the will
are cultivated. On the bedrock of such
training the true university may rest-a
university such as the Stanford University
is outlined 10 be-a university embracing
the science of human life, in its varied in
dustries arts, science, literature govern
ment, political economy, ethics, moral I'M
foldment, hygiene-and, in short, all
that goes to make up perfected hui
man life; university where the school
and the workshop clasp hands, where body
and mind are educated together, where the
mechanic and the classical student will
strike hands together, where the artist
and the artisan will eat at one common
board Democracy means equitable oppor-