Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1891-10-01
THE KINDERGARTEN.
EXPLANATION OF THE SYSTEM
FOUNDED BY FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.

John Comenius and Pestalozzi Theorized
on the Subject but Never Worked it out
The Application of Froebels Methods to
Child Education-Form, not Reform the
Elizabeth R. Vermilye writes of free
kindergartens in the Sunday School
Times and the article is reproduced here
for the benefit of TIMES readers.
One hundred and nine years ago the
2lst of April, a life began in the humble
home of pastor in village of Schwartz
burg, Germany. Left motherless in less
than a year; deprived also, by the press
ing demands of country parish, of a
fathers love and care, a lonely, neglec-
ted, and misunderstood childhood pecul-
iarly fitted that German lad to under
stand the feelings and wants of child
hood the world over. A youth spent
amid the wild solitudes of Thuringian
forest, in closest communion with Nature
in all her moods, taught him, among
other of her secrets, the indissOluble ties
between Mother Earth and her human
children, and was the best possible train
ing for his life-work.
Patient, persevcring, and earnest,-
from that life's experiences, bitter but
fruitful as they were,-Frederick Froebel
evolved his educational system, a system
which, because it has at it's core a large
measure of truth and common sense, has
lived and grown, triumphing over igno-
rance and opposition, until it has made
its way into all lands, and is to-day be-
slowing its benefits, not only on the rich,
but also on the poor; and bids fair to
revolutionize the whole child-world. AL
though it was indeed first planted in the
mind of John Comenius 200 years before,
and received some stimulus in the middle
of the last century from Pestalozzi, the
father of the modern educational meth
eds, only terminated and came to fruit
age in the heart Of the man who gave it
his name. The idea for the true educa-
tion of children, as it was conceived by
Comenius, was comprehensive and adj
vanced, but the theories were never
worked out in detail until the void in
Froebel's own childish heart-put there,
it may be, for the very purpose-ren-
dered him alive and responsive to the
needs of all children everywhere.
Comenius thus explains the idea as he
CouCelVou IL. - DuFlnS JIe IISG SIX
years put into the child the foundation
of all knowledge necessary to life. In
nature show him stones, plants, animals,
and teach him to make use of his limbs
(natural history and physics) to distin-
guish colors Optics and sounds (acous-
tics) to contemplate the stars (astron-
omy). He will naturally observe his
cradle, the room he lives in, the house,
tho npiUh hnrhnnH tho rnadc tho folds
geography ; make him attentive to the
succession of day and night, to the sea-
sons, to the divisions of time, the hours,
weeks, months, festival days (chronol-
ogy); let him learn the administration
of the house (politics); let him familiar
ize himself with the first notions of cal
culations, sales. and purchases (com-
merce): the dimensions of bodies, their
lines, surfaces, solids (geometry); he
will hear singing, and his voice will learn
to reproduce sounds and musical phrases
(singing, music; he will survey the for
nation and development of his mother
tongue (grammar); he will exercise him
self in expressing his thoughts and SEN
timents by gestures and the infection of
the voice (rhetoric.) By these means
the maternal school will develop the
germs of all the sciences and all the
arts"
In the nature-taught soul of Froebel
these conceptions took on new signifi-
canoe, and eXhaled peculiar fragrance
and poetry. Building on the fundamen-
tai principle which science, too, so en-
phatically teaches, of the law of unity,
he viewed human beings in their three
fold relations to nature, man, and God,
and claimed the necessity for threefold
development-physi mental, and NOR
al. He regarded every little child as
Thought of Cod having in it the germ
of all the Creator had designed it to be,
to be developed naturally and harmo-
niously with reference to its individual
nature" To his mind the purpose of
education was merely to aid this devel-
opment in every possible way, and so as
" to show each individual soul its own
possibilities.
From such reasoning it was but step
to the conception Of the human being as
something to be 'cultivated, not drilled -
of the child as in certain way the in
carnation, or conscious life of nature"
as Froebel himself expresses it; or, as a
Boston writer puts it, "as living organ
ism, who is to be treated as gardener
treats his plants: that is, in the first
paw obuolCu W oCC WlldU tllty are, anu
what conditions they require, for the
fullest and most beautiful growth; then
put into these conditions with as little
handling of their individuality as posi-
BILE, but with an unceasing genial and
provident care to remove all Instructions
and favor all circumstances of growth. -
On these theories was based Froebel's
system; from such musings grew natur-
ally, and without pressure, the beautiful
conception of the "child garden,' into
which are daily being transplanted so
many thousand little human plants.
Volumes have been written in elucida-
ton of these theories. 1t is only my pur-
pose to give such an account of them as
to show how they can be practically APP
piled to the obtrusive questionings of
this 10Th century. That they are being
so applied we cannot reasonably doubt
We may differ as to the Importance
and significance of these modern methods
of education. These kindergarten theo-
ries may seem to many useless and tri-
vial. We may be among those, of whom
there were so many at first, who find it
difficult to reconcile the ideas of work
and play, so as to find true, substantial
in MI hut IN