The daily citizen. [volume] (Asheville, N.C.) 1889-1890, 1889-11-06
THE KINDERGARTEN.
WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN
THIS COUNTRY.

Their Influence For Good In the
Formation of Character, Has
Been Felt in Every City Where
They Have Been Established.
From Century Magazine.
One of the pcculiaritcs of the philan-
thrOpy of the present time is the en-
phasis it gives to the value of preventive
work. Never before has so much atten-
tion been given to childhood or so much
importance been attached to the torma-
tive period of life.
Statistics show that the country is
producing more criminals in proportion
to the population, and younger ones,
than it produced twenty-five years ago,
and the cause of this alarming state Of
things is found to he in the neglect of
childhood. 1t is seen that the tendencies
of infancy, whether for good or for evil,
crystallize into the character ofmaturity,
and the philanthrOpist weary of fruit
less efforts at reforming, is seeking for
means of forming wisely and we'll
The home is the proper place for begin
ming, but i'll many cases there are practi-
al difficulties in the way, and thought
tul people are turning with hope to the
mission kindergarten, which, whether re-
garded from the standpoint of the educa-
tor, the social relormcr or the Christian
teacher, contains possibilities of preven-
ton and upbuilding not to be found in
any other available agency.
1t is adapted to children of three years
Of age, thus meeting the demand that in
some way the years below school age
shall be utilized for the highest educa-
tiOnal purposes. The training of the
kindergarten includes the whole child.
For his hands there is delightful occupa-
ton, through which he learns to love
work and to respect himself as a pre-
duccr of that which is useful and beauti-
full; there is well-directcd activity for the
busy brain; and above all, the higher
faculties OF love, joy, sympathy, and
reverence are brought into constant and
healthy exercise.
During the last decade interest in the
mission kindergarten has been growing,
until there is now in the country scarcely
city that has not one or more such
institutions. More than ten years ago
Mrs. Quincy Shaw began the work in
Boston by establishing iii the worst
quarters of the city about twenty
Iiindcrgartens, into which the children
Of the lowest classes were gathered.
Wcll-trained teachers were employed,
and the whole enterprise was under the
wise and efficient superintendent of two
l;indcrgartncrs. 1t is the testimony of
the police that the moral aspect of whole
ncighborhoods has been improved by
these institutions. That the system is
believed to have a high educational value
is proved by the fact that after so
thorough trial it was last year adopted
as part of the public-school system OF
t hat city.
In Philadelphia, few years since,
similar movement was started as re-
suit of the thorough work of the Society
for the Organization of Charity. 1t was
found that, in the homes and haunts of
the pauper and criminal classes, children
were growing up in appalling conditions
of ignorance, ideness, and vice. AS it
was felt that the only remedy for exist
ing evils and the only hope for the future
lay in vigorous preventive work, kinder
gartens were established in every ward
of the city, and the satisfaction they
gave led to their adoption as a sub
primary department of the public
schools.
In San Francisco, mission kindergar-
tens, established as an offset to the
hoodlumism which threatened the safety
of society, are now the most popular of
all the philanthropicS. In Chicago, ST.
Paul, Cincinnati, and Brooklyn there are
efficient associations OF this kind, and i'll
st. Louis the kindergarten has orsevcral
years been a part of the chool system.
| New York has many of these missions;
but with a tenement house population of
100 600, of whom more than AZ, 900
are under five years OF age, and with
constant influx of the lowest class of
foreigners, it is felt that this is a time Of
emergency to meet which extraordinary
efforts are necessary, and movement
has been started looking to thecStahlish-
mcnt of kindcrgartcns throughout the
city. ANGELINE BROOKS,