The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-04-18
THE IDEA SPREADS.
kindergarten the Basis of Pub
lie School System.
ALL GREAT GROWTHS ARE GRADUAL
What a Well Known Educator OF Chi
cago Has to Say-The impress
sionable Age.

The day is not so very far distant,
! we believe, till the kindergarten is un-
iversally recognized as the basis of the
public school system. Meanwhile the
public thought must be directed in this
channel for the purpose of permitting
the people to discover the reason and
: the reasonableness of such departure.
An able article on this line has been
prepared by Prof. A. f. Nightingale,
principal Of a Chicago High School,
i who writes:
"All great growths are gradual.
J The hotbed plant forced into maturity
by artificial heat and an abnormal fertil-
. ization can not easily inure itself to
the tickle climatic effects of nature, its
, wild storms, its burning sun, its chill
ing fogs. It's perfume charms, its
flowers fascinate, but the fashion of it
soon faileth for its strength is perfect
weakness.
The gnarled oak, on the other hand
, the monarch of the forest, lifting its
, huge trunk toward the skies, comes
forth from the tiny mother nature, who
always insures the survival of the
tittest, it battles with storm and sun
and shade, and from every battle comes
forth with roots deeper set, and trunk
more rugged. So with all great move
ments that uplift civilization, advance
culture, enlarge humanity and sweeten
the life of the humble; they are not
. nuo1nnoc 40 ~
ginnings, like the rill and rivulets of
the mountain side, are almost imper-
ceptible. They gather strength not by
days but by years, and their maturity
ranks the epochs of time. Thus it is
with the worlds heritage from the
Thurinigan forest. One hundred and
ten years have past since the birth Of
! Froebel; forty years since his death.
q The seed he scattered has taken deepest
: root. The favoring winds of heaven
: have borne its germ to every land. 1t
is in the flower on our nurturing soil
! and the rich fruitage will soon await
the harvesting of those who believe in
n the divinity of all life. The Froebe-
: liam idea that true education is the de-
d velopment of innate faculties through
S voluntary activity is no longer a mat
: ter of speculation. 1t is an established
, truth. The kindergarten has demon
strated its right to recognition at the
: hands of conserving and conservative
r public by its results under the foster.
= ing care of private munifcence 1t has
g had many false friends 1t has been
s used as financial covert for the I'M
g learned and unlearnable. In no sense
o designed as nursery for the relief of
: busy and weary mothers, it has been
e made such. Yet, whenever and where
Il ever its philosophy has been understood
o it has found warm adherents, self.sac-
;, rificing supporters, earnest, persistent
:, propagators, until now the educational
q world awaits but the dominant voice
of the public opinion to make it an
h organic part of our public school sys-
is tenn. Were we asked. ought it to be
d incorporated by the people for the
s. furnishing life of infancy. we would
n unqualifiedly say, yes. Were we asked,
is can it be, we would say unhesitatingly,
:. yes, provided public opinion demand
j. it. Educators, however convinced,
It cannot take the initiative in its intro.
10 duction, because they do not hold the
& purse that pays the cost, but they can
ID and ought to agitate the question and
IS subject anyhere and everywhere, not
If only in Institutes of education, where
h there is already conviction and CONVEX.
n sion, but in the public press, in social
ID clubs, on the lecture platform, along
5, the great highways of life, where
ID opinion is manufactured until the peo-
pie who are always right and in the
n end will have the right shall rise in
20 the majesty of their potency and in
y the name Of the children demand that
e there gardens shall be planted that the
/ germs of intellectual activity shall be
re- rightly nurtured.
j. AS Adam and Otis were the inspired
TT spirits of the revolution that gave birth
ot to freedom on the new continent. Of
:, Phillips and Garrison, mantled in
es divine justice, were the apostles Of
re the disenthrallment of a shackled
Of race, so Pestalozzi and Froebel were
a. the prophets of an education, which,
g. misnamed new, is as old as the birth
Of of natures, unity in the infinity o.
IS time.
I'd We appreciate the practical objec
1e ton to its organic introduction. 1t i.
t. matter of mere money. As philo
IN sophical creed, it finds few opponents
- among those who have studied tn,
Of nature of the undeveloped soul, Blu
as financial disturber in the practica
working of our already overweightet
l. system, it meets the opposition O
of those legally constituted authoritie
it who will vote no money the people d,
ne not clamor for.
IN But when the great mass of tho PEG
p pie shall be educated to an appreciation
IN of the fact that the first six years of
st child's life determine the character O
IS, the manhood to be; when they shall
#. awake to the thought that the plast
he spirit must be mold before nodded il