The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-04-09
KINDERGARTEN NOTES.

Froehel, the founder of the kinder
garten, when dying, said he had
laSored hard to make Christianity q
reality,
The first kindergarten established
by Froebel was at Blankenburg,
near Rudolstadt Thuringia, in 1897
He objected to calling it an infant
school, for he said the pupils were
not 10 be schooled, but developed,
and it WAS while walking with two OF
his teachers over q mountain pass
(1S40l, aud repeating: "Oh, that i
could think of good name for my
Youngest bornw that he suddenly
sto ID still and shouted to the mount
ain so that ii echoed TO the four
winds. Eureka, kindergarten (ehild
garden) shall the institute be called
Miss Elizabeth Peabody said
"KindeTgartening is not craft, it is
religion; not an ave catiop, but a
vocation from on high"
The teacher of little children must
be at heart child. Froebel com
pletely entered into child life to
prove the correctness OF his theories,
so the teacher must also feel the
keenest interest In the child's inner
most nature. All the requirements
expected of her must be tempered
with tact, ingenuity and cheerful
ness; in fact, all of the graces that
are the outcome OF q perfectly Guilt
waited mind, body and soul.
Undoubtedly the development of
children is greatly influenced by
their surroundings. That is why the
room where the kindergarten is held
is made such an attractive place with
pictures, plants, collections of inter
esting things from nature, and var
ious kinds of work for the children,
as paper folding, cutting, and weav
ing. 1t is indeed a paradise of
Childhood" Why not make the
primary class room just as attractive
IN its way as the kindergarten? We
do not hesitate to say that it would
be we'll for every primary teacher to
have a kindergarten training In
order to better comprehend child
nature. If full training cannot be
undertaken it may be possible for
primary teachers to attend Mothers
classes.
Froebel. the founder of the kinder
garten, was one Of the most devout
of men, He insisted that the spiritual
and physical developement of child
but that the two should be closely
welded to one another. He held
that simple intellectual culture was
not enough, that mere increase of
knowledge will not, of itself, make
man moral and upright; that it is
impossible to send the intellect of q
child to school and keep the heart at
home.
The kindergarten method, like the
method of Nature itself, always has
reference to the whole, and keeps the
end in view in all phases of develop
ment.
MRS. SARAH B. COOPER SAYS.
We are often asked: tDo you
teach religion in the kindergarten?
Do you teach temperance in the
kindergarten? Most emphatically,
we answer, yes" But we do not
teach sectarianism, nor politics. We
lay the chief emphasis upon right
feelings, right motives and right |
action. Right conduct to be perma-
nent. must be inspired by right feel |
ings, and right motives. The chief |
concern in all education, is to lay |
foundations for virtuous self-govern
ing, law abiding citizenship. It |
should never be forgotten that the |
Great Teacher Himself laid down a
principle, which, If diligently follow
ed, would speedily make the world |
an Eden. Il is this: Seek We first |
the Kingdom of God and HIS right
essness, and all these things shall |
be added you And this Is the
foundation principle on which the |
great apostle Froebel founded his i
educational structure.
To seek the highest, is to secure
all that lies below it. When we
come under the full dominion of
that Kingdom, we shall understand
that love is the true wisdom; charity
the true Justice; self control the true
aDd to patiently wait
on God, the true philosophy of life.
There will be no dark continents
when He shall come whose right it IS
reign. All these principles are laid
down in the kindergarten, and these
doctrines are learned through doing.
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