The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-11-09

ago this writer interviewed Miss
Kate Drexell, "a Philadelphia young
lady of high culture and enormous
wealth. She had just then become
welded to the Catholic Church.
She was the head of a sisterhood
and was known simply as Mother
Katherine. At that time she had
just then inaugurated an extensive
mission work at the Wind River
Indian reservation, south of the
Yellowstone National Park. More
than 100000 in preliminary work
and building had been expended.
Chow are you going to civilize
these Indians ?" was asked.
81 am going to get their little
children into our kindergartens.
That is the only way to civilize the
tribes. Every other method has
filled. We will thus go to the
root of the evil, as it were"
Mother Kathrine, like all per-
sons of advanced thought is al en-
thusiastic advocate of the kinder
garten.
Following is a treatise upon this
subject from the pen of Honolulu
teacher. It is interesting and
practical:
Kindergarten education is one of
the most beautiful achievements OF
this century. And the free kindergar-
ten movement is the Towering of the
wonderful plant, whose reed was ger
minated in the soul of that ''apostle
of childhood" Froebel about sixty
years ago.
In beginning an article on this sub
ject to awaken thought in the minds
of the mothers, sisters, daughters, and
lady teachers of our islands, L trust
the words may be of interest and be
read also by fathers, brothers and
sons.
NV object is to state in condensed
form, the system of kindergarten edu-
cation, and to awaken the desire in
many women to investigate this sub
iect for the sake of their own chill
dren, and to enlist young ladies to
take the course of study for kinder
garten teaching. The day may yet
arrive when young lady's education
will scarce be considered complete
without some knowledge of kinder
garten methods.
L NAV be pardoned in extracting
freely from the most interesting Four
teenth Annual Report of the Golden
Gate kindergarten Association. Mrs.
Sarah b. Cooper, the founder, in an
address delivered last year to Chris
tian workers, explains her own incep-
tion of this work in San Francisco as
follows: 'The Divine teacher when
upon the earth took little child,
and set him in the midst saying,
'whosoever receiveth little child in
my name, receiveth me- The little
child has been left standing in our
midst too long. The world Is just be-
ginning to understand that the little
child is the important factor in this
universe; that the quickest, surest
route to Christian manhood is over
the old-fashioned turnpike road, train
up child in the way be should co.
Believing this with all my heart /
turned tne thought of my class, Mrs.
Cooper, as it is well-knOwn is the
teacher of a large Bible class in San
Francisco, of both ladies and gentle
men, numbering always hundred or
more1 some fourteen years ago, to
klnueTSafJeD WOfh dthphS lle pOOI
waits of the by-ways AMI alleys, chill
dren from three to six years of age,
too young to enter the puolIc schools,
but not too young to learn the entire
vocabulary OF wicketnes~ from their
older compeers in tie streets; chill
dren of brutal fathers anu mothers,
children of vice ami crime growing up
TO become candidates for our prisons
and penitentia les,
the fiotsam and jet>am on the wild
mad sea of life children who have no
childhood, and hone 10 call them by
dear names, who have almost for
gotten the knack of play.
Among Just such children as these the
members of my Bible class began
their successful work. From
that time to the present over l 5000
children have been gathered into
kindergartens, no less than thirty