The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1896-08-19
KINDERGARTEN.

ten really is, and why it has reason to claim
an important place among our education
al institutions. As the name would sug-
gest, this cnildrens' nature school took
its start in Germany, where experience
and not experiment had noted a clearly
seen want for the highest and fullest de-
velopment OF the child. 1t goes without
saying today that Germanyhas the finest
educational systems in the world as a re-
suit of the easy and natural transition
through the different departments Of
training from early childhood to the uni
versity career, OF out into life; for no
gaps exist to be plugged in with chunks
of indigestible instruction, else left un-
done; nor does the course Of study COM
pei the child to unstring nerves in crowd
ing and cramming into d few years what
may be thoroughly learned with proper
correlation of time and studies.
1t has been fact that our own educa-
tors only too truly recognized when a
German youth is better prepared after a
course of study to enter the university or
engage in business than is our youth OF
equal age; not because Germany crowds
her pupils more in school, but from the
fact that youthful time and energies from
the earliest years are spent for some deli
mite purpose, with no side line curiosity
studies that entertain rather than in
struct. No children the world over are
healthier, happier in their child life,
whether it be in the city or country, in
wealth or in poverty.
Educators now commonly admit that
mental and physical training should go
on hand in hand if we wish child nor
mally developed; nervous prostration in
school may be the result of heredity or Of
an ill advised forcing in studies beyond
ones strength, as often the fault Of the
parent in not giving the matter early at
tentiOn.
A true Kindergarten is specialist, in
what is physically and mentally best for
the child just as physician whom we
employ, not for his knowledge ofOne par
ticular organ Of the body but for an un-
derstanding of the inter-dependence Of
all the organs in healthy state of being.
A child from its earliest years has
activities and desires that must be pro-
yided form the growth of soul, mind and
body; any attempt to ripen such powers
out of season is Of course apt to produce
unsound fruit. Now the kindergarten
works along entirely natural lines of de-
velopment, recognizing that the first -four
or five years are physical years with chill
dren. Within these years deformites OF
weak points with average children may be
largely rectifed with ease, but afterward
witha hundred fold OF difficulty. Likewise
from four to seven or eight years of age.
the kindergarten period, are what is
termed the acquisitive and social years
within which, as in physical years, there
occurs the best time to be socially i'm
proved.
By social improvement we mean learn
ing through relation with other cOurte
sizes of life as influenced by ones dispOsi
tiOn and temper. Sel6shness can be largel!
eliminated, truthfulness, candOr, gen
erosity and other refining qualities real
ly become natural with the child. Tht
why and wherefore Of things open a 6el(
of information not to be gained at a late
school period with the ease that nature
appeals even in infancy to the child il
the form, size, color and combination o.
objects about him in every day life.
From songs and folklore stories there
springs common sense of patriotism
love of parents and Of home, the recog
milton of right from wrong, principles
which underlie citizenship and good gov
ernment; and right here is the time wheI
children of foreign birth as we'll as tht
thousands of young who thrOng thC
dOorsteps and alleys in our cities
and towns with little or no attention tt
their life or morals should be taken il
hand and be given a different view o.
life. The attitude we all of us take O.
our surroundings, the way we look at TN
world within as well as the world with
out depends at every stage in life yer!
much upon what our early training ha
been; and we have it from the best au
thority on these subjects that mucl
more of our action is the result Of i'm
pulse through the force of habit thai
from any direction Of the will, so muc
easier to be influenced than to act.
To start the child right in life then, t
do what the home life is prevented g
limited in doing for the man
thousands of young life, to lay tn
splendid foundation in character buil(
ing and observation training upon whic
the serious work of life may begin, al
some of the purposes Of the kindergarten
The principles guiding such delica
yet all essential work are the same thi
underlie all education-the develOpmeI
/ of the individual along the lines and /
methods he was by nature intended
Q pursue. "As the twig so the branch
inclined" 1t really matters little if v
0 wish to collect crystals, when the stick