Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-23
MOULDING YOUNG LIVES.

MOULDING YOUNG LIVES.
A writer in a Los Angeles paper a
short time ago took occasion to call pub.
lie attention to the large and increasing
class of street children-hoodlums-
that city, and noted the fact that very
little was being done to counteract the
evil influences which are moulding the
young lives of these future citizens tc
very undesirable ends. The writer
closed with a protest against the saloons
as one of the most potent factors of de,
moraliZation.
There is something, however. still
graver and threatening than the presence
of any specific evil influence, namely,
the absence of all influence for good, of
all moral training, without which the
purely negative safeguards and meas
ures of repression are valuable
only as auxiliaries, and are Of
small efficiency. 1t is not enough
to remove incentives to wrong
doing. while the passion for doing
of some kind remains the strongest
in human nature. The way to we'll
doing must be opened also. And here
comes in the kindergarten. The scope
of its limitless work cannot be Get forth
in brief notice such as this, but the
subjoined circular from a free kinder
garten in Cambridge, Mass, contains a
word for the moral and social training
that comes in fifty to our need.
X
For one reason or another the thirty
children meet every morning, and, as [
say, learn and unlearn much.
OF course they are not all from misera-
| bic homes. Some are respectable and
clean with ideas already of obedience,
| pleasant temper and truth-telling. as
well as on counting and singing. But
all together they learn the same rules
for every-day-life which we must all
learn sooner or later if we mean to live
pleasantly with other people or to make
anything of ourselves.
First. they learn that they must have
clean hands, if they expect to look
at picture-books or sit next to
the little girl with a clean
white apron, or to work with the
pretty colored papers which the rest of
the children are folding in all sorts of
shapes.
Then they find it a pity not to have a
clean face to match. Then almost al
ways when they go home after a thor
ough washing of face and hands the
mother thinks it pity that the apron
should not look fresher, and perhaps the
next day the child appears clean from
top to toe, having had all her clothes
washed. This happens often.
Now comes the unlearning. The child
may use bad language, and is quietly
told by the teacher that she does not
like the sound of it, and that she is try
ing to have only pleasant sounds in her
school-room. 1t is surprising how quickly
the child drops the habit after being once
or twice reminded. The children learn
to count and to add, and to know the
different colors and shades by means of
rows of painted balls; they learn to sing:
they have plants by which they learn
the first rules of growth, and they be-
come deeply interested in the first blades
of grass and the common weeds and
flowers as they appear in the spring.
Theylearn games, and find out that it
is better fun to play fair than to cheat.
They learn to say, good morning."
good bye" and thank you" and to
feel their own self respect by SO doing.
They learn to make squares and cubes,
obiongs and circles; and different angles,
and to describe the shapes of different
objects by means of sticks and blocks.
They learn to express themselves easy
and well by telling the way to different
familiar places and telling little stories
of things which they have seen and
heard. They copy ON the blackboard or
with moulding clay the shapes of COM
mon things. They learn simple weaving
by means Of strips of colored paper, and
find out in this way the colors which har-
monte and contrast
They cut and paste boxes neatly and
keep them to adorn their Christmas tree.
when they give them with great pride to
their mothers and fathers.
They do errands for their teacher and
each other. and find that it is twice as
smart to help each other, and to tell the
truth, and to recognize each others |
rights, as it is to tease and lie. or to take |
and keep anything they can get lawfully |
or unlawfully from their neighbors.
The children go into the primary school |
when they leave the kindergarten.
Hear what the new teacher says of |
them. She says: The kindergarten |
children, as a rule. learn in six month |
what the childeen taken from the street |
take year to even understand" She |
was asked in what way the difference |
was shown, and she said that IN the first /
place they know how to mind. so it is
easy to gain their attention: they have |
learned TO listen. so it is not necessary to /
repeat the same thing dozen times:
they have learned TO observe and TO use
their eyes: their hands are trained to
neatness and accuracy, So that their first
sums and first copy-books show that
they have learned how TO learn. In this
way children save much time.
That Is what the primary school teach
er says. Now the policemen have
good word for the kindergarten. He
says there is no more fighting and
and cursing among the chill
1ren who are too small to go to the pub
lie school"
The social conditions of Los Angeles
and Cambridge do not find a counterpart
in Wichita, in extent at least: neverthe-
less, with growing population. partak-
ing somewhat of cosmopolitan char
acter as it does unavoidably in this civ,
The points raised in the foregoing present
themselves TO the mind of the intelligent
citizen who has the future welfare of the
at heart and prompts the
inquiry of how to prevent such condi-
lions here as far as possible and to meet
hem whenever they NAV occur. The
maxim of IAN ounce of preventive is
worth pound of cure is as applicable
u the social as in th. y,hysic.l u-o-.a