The record-union., 1891-12-12
PROGRESS OF THE KINDERGAR-
TEN

The rapidity with which the kindergar-
ten has risen in public confidence in this
State is very gratifying. There are now
thirty-two free kindergarten schools in
San Francisco under the Golden Gate
kindergarten Association, which is in
the twelfth year of its useful existence.
In Sacramento three years ago there
was not a single free kindergarten school;
there are now three large ones and
several private ones. There is room for
three more, and men and women of
means can well afford to contribute to
maintain such institutions, under the as
surance that their money used in the
work is invested to the very best possible
advantage.
The twelfth annual report of the Golden
Gate Association is at hand, and clearly
sets forth the success that has attended
this system of training children, who
without it are very likely to become
members of the neglected class, and to
furnish eventually recruits to the GRIM
inal ranks. In San Francisco in twelve
years nearly 5000 children have been
trained in such schools. Many of these
are now Is and Is years of age, and are
living evidences of the enduring benefits
of the kindergarten system.
The President of the association de-
clares that, after most thorough investiga-
ton, it has been found that not one of
these youths has drifted into the list of
offenders, and this, too, in the face of the
fact that the kindergarten schools are
located in the districts where criminals
are made. The association can afford to
stand upon this fact, as in itself all suffi-
cient proof of the wise investment of its
energies.
A woman of means in Massachusetts
maintained dozen kindergartens for
decade, in Boston, at her own expense
mainly. So strongly did her work COM
mend itself to the people, that two years
ago the local Board Of Education adopted
the schools, attached them to tho Boston
system, and rendered the woman $4,000
of the sum she had so generously and un-
selfishly expended. Stronger evidence
of the worth of the kindergarten could
scarcely be given.
a new feature of Kindergarten work is
mothers meetings" Not only are the
children of the very poor and the debased
gathered in, their perceptive faculties
trained, and their ambition for better
| things stimulated, but now the mothers
of these little ones are brought to the
school at stated periods and the reasons
made plain to them why their children
are trained in a particular way. The re-
suit has been that these poor women,
most of whom had no early or other edu-
cation, and have entertained but slender
ideas of thrift, and have all but given
themselves over TO unthrift and helpless
ness, catch the kindergarten spirit, are
stimulated to do for themselves, to intro
duce order and neatness into their homes,
and to strive to attain better level in the
economy of life. These mothers meet
ings in Sacramento have had surprising
effects for good, and have as much as the
kindergarten itself encouraged the people
who are maintaining the schools.
Through this agency, if through no other,
then, it is possible to reach into the homes
of destitution and inebriety, and intro
duce sunlight and the spirit of better
things. Who shall venture to estimate