The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-11
BENDING THE TWIG.


they know. If they did, the world
would be a better place to live in, and
its people be healthier, both physically
and morally. Laziness and stinginess
are the brakes that keep the wheels
of progress moving at snaiPs pace.
Reasoning without taking those traits
into consideration one would expect
that there would be eagerness to seize
and improve means and methods of
lettering conditions that were pro-
posed; that even before demonstration
of their utility there would be anxiety
to have them tested and willingness to
give time and money to the trial, and
that, after a complete demonstration Of
utility had been made, there would be
general and glad acceptance and
utilization of the reform. Possibly the
divine scheme of human progress con-
templates no such rapid rise as such
a state Of mind would give, and, for
some inscrutable reason, the race is to
move forward and upward with clogs
on its limbs, slowly and painfully, to
its last AMI highest stage Of develop
ment
Everybody who knows anything
knows that the influences surrounding
the first ten years Of a child's life are
more potential in moulding it's char
acter than are all those which sur
round it in, all its after life. Long ago
this knowledge crystaIlized in one of
those adages that are the expression
of the wisdom of the race hardly
gained in the school of experience. LAS
the twig IS bent the tree is inclined"
The nurseryman does not wait until
the tree has gained strength of fiber
to begin it's training in uprightness.
but begins with the tender twig The
stockman gives to the young stock
more care and watchfulness than he
does to the grown. And it is as the
little human twig is bent in the years
when it yields readily to bending that
the man or woman is inclined. OF the
ten formative years the six before ar
irving at school age are more impor-
tant than the four or more remaining
years. 1t was the sense of the truth of
this that led Froebel to inaugurate his
kindergartens, and the marvel is that
the value to the state Of his method is
so little appreciated by the general
public. It is only after great effort
that they are made part of the COM
mon school system and then, when
economies are to be enforced, it Is the
kindergarten that is the first to be
sacrificed or impaired. The twig is left
to grow as it may, while attention Is
given to training the young tree al
ready we'll set In its inclinations.
San Francisco, as q school corpora
ton, instances the laziness and stfngi-
ness of humanity in its public indiffer-
ence to Froebels system. It RENTS TO
private enterprise the maintenance of
the kindergartens and the provision
of the $4,000 annually needed for their
support Enough citizens are neither
lazy nor stingy to provide this. while
the results are so striking as to make
it a reproach that SO excellent a sys
tenn Of education should be ignored by
the public authorities One of the
teachers Of that city says that before
the kindergartens were established the
children, for the greater part, came to
the schools at six with the education
of the streets, fund Of information Of
the worst description and a vocabulary
that would excite the envy of the Bar
barry coast" The kindergartens have
changed all this. Children come from
homes in the tenements and slums into
the public schools from the kindergar
tens clean. self-respecting, eager for
knowledge" I hear no more the wild
phrases of the tenderloin, or the rude
drivers oaths. 1t is a rare thing to
find child who does not know il is
wrong to steal If you find such a one
you may know it has never been in
the kindergarten" The testimony
there is, as everywhere, that the chill
dren coming into the grades from the
kindergartens are more tractable in
telligent and moral than are those
coming without that previous training.
But the evidence of the good effect
of these schools in the important mat
ter of preparation for citizenship does
not rest with the teachers. who might
be suspected of enthusiasm swerving
judgment The police bring their very