Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-24
THE FREE KINDERGARTEN.

Paper From One of the Piorerrs OF the
work-The Ideal TeRcher-Max o'ReIp,
Ideas of the American Woman and the
Reality.
There are few large cities In which there
is not to be found one of these three things
"a free public kindergarten, a society or.
ganized for the purpose of establishing
these kindergartens, or great many per.
sons who are hoping to have such society
and such kindergartens by and by. More
over, there are no cities, large or small, 10
towns, and few homes in which there are
children, where the author of Patsy" and
''Timothv's Quest" and the 'tBirds' Christ
mas Carol" is not known and read and
loved. So when Mrs. Wiggin, whose work
in free kindergartens has been as inspiring
and successful as her books, writes about
kindergarten topics, there is double inter-
es. in reading. She it was who established
| the first kindergarten in San Francisco. In
| the following paper for THE DISPATCH
she tells why we need free kindergartens,
and of the high requirements for the ideal
teacher of little children.
1--WE need the free or public kindergarten
educationally as the vestibule to our school
work; we need it as a philsnthropic agent,
leading the child gently into right habits of
thought, speech and deed from the begin
ming. We need it to help in the absorption
and amalgamation of our foreign element;
for the social training, the opportunity for
cooperation, and the purely republics
form of government in the kindergarten
make it of great value in the Development
Of the citizen virtues, as well as those of the
individual
81 cannot help thinking that if this side
of Froebel's educational ideas were more
insisted on throughout our common school
system, we should be making better citizens
and no worse scholars. But the heaviest Of
the work falls upon the kindergartener.
That is why am convinced that we should
do everything that sympathy and homer and
SO that women Of good birth, breed
ing, culture and genius should
gravitate to it. She it is, who, living with
the children, can make the kindergarten an
integral part of the neighborhood, the GEN.
ter of its best life. She it is, often, who
must hold husband to wife, and parent to
child; she it is, after all. who must inter-
pret the aims of the association-translate
its noble theories into practice. (Ayl and
there's the rubD She it is who must har-
monize great ideal principles with real and
sometimes sorry conditions. A kindergarten
ten association stands for certain things
before the community. 1t is she alone who
can prove the truth-who can substantiste
the argument-who can show the facts.
There is no more difficult vocation in the
universe, and no more honorable or sacred
one. If kindergartener is looked upon, or
paid, or treated as nursery maid, her
ranks will gradually be recruited from that
source.
1.-The ideal teacher of little children ia
not yet born; we have to struggle on a. best
we can without her. She needs the strength
of Vulcan, and The delicacy of an Ariel:
she needs child's heart, woman's heart
q mothers heart N one. She needs clear
judgment ana ready sympathy, strength of
will, equal elasticity, keen insight, the
buoyancy of hope, the serenity of faith, the
tenderness of patience. Thu hope of the
world lies in the children. when we are
better mothers, when men are better fathers.
there will be better children and a better
world.
''The sooner we see the value of Begin
nings-that we can put bunglers and
butchers anywhere else better than in mr.
serv, kindergarten and primary school
(there are no three places in the universe
so big with fateD the sooner we shall ar
rive at better results. / am afraid it is
humanity begets the ideas of which each
century has need (at least so it is said, and
1 have never had the courage to deny it or
the time to look it up). But the female
genius, am sure, has to help to work out
the ideas and to help is also to do the work
of the world.
81 cannot see why Max O'Rell should
have exclaimed with such JUNCTION a few
nights ago that if he were to be born over
again, he would choose to be an American
woman. He never has tried being one.
He doesn't realize that she has in hand the
not only of the American
woman, but the reformation of the Ameri- i
can man, and the education of the American
child as we'll If that triangular mission
does not keep her out of mischief and make
her the angel of the twentieth century, she
Is hopeless case!
"KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN."