St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-03-01
THE MOTHERS SPEAK.

THE MOTHERS SPEAK.
If the mothers could decide, any
other department of the public school
system of st. Paul would be sacrificed
before the kindergartens. This is what
they have said in private conversation
whenever approached on the subject.
1t is what they say publicly this morn
ing through the columns of the G / o b e.
1t is a subject on which they are pre-
eminently qualified to speak. If there
is branch of the public service in
which the opinion of women should
have weight, it is the conduct of the
schools. If there are any people in
the world qualified to speak on any
subject, surely the mothers know what
is the effect of the kindergarten in
struction on the little ones who are
just beginning to need the education
that the home cannot, in too many
cases will not, supply. The Glob
has Sought these mothers diligently,
among all the people, rich and educat-
ed, poor and illy-instructed welI-to-do
and ambitious of the best, throughout
the length and breadth of st. Paul.
Without attempting to suggest to them
their answers, 1t has asked them what
they thought Of the kindergarten in
the public schools: what they had
found to be it's effect upon the child.
we ask only that every citizen will
read the replies given by those to
whom the new agency in child educa-
ton has come like a beam of light
from heaven. and there will never
again arise the suggestion Of a posi-
bilfty that, in any emergency, or under
the stress of any necessity, the kin
dergartens' Should cease or limit their
work as long as there remains any
system Of public school education for.
the children Of ST. Paul The vote is
unanimous. 1t is overwhelming. 1t is
fearful and pitiful in the fear that 1t
shows to have overspread so many
humble homes lest the kindergarten
might be closed. From the mothers. of
every station and condition of life.
and from them all there comes the
chorus Of appeal, "Save the kinder
gartens."
Women of refinement and culture
who have made a STUDY of education
IN its relation to child life, and who
devote themselves to the complete de-
velopment of their own children as the
noblest work assigned to them by God.
say unreservedly that they find the
very best work for the child and for
the state in the kindergarten instruc-
ton. Some Of those whose opinions
we publish this morning, and who are
aVerse to the public use of their names.
have said to the G l o that, in this
cause, they are glad to give all of the
influence or weight that those names
may carry if it will help to keep the
kindergartens in the schools of st.
Paul. So vital is this, that they be-
lieve every consideration that conflicts
with it should be banished. Then there
are the others, whose stories no man
who has the interest of the people close
at his heart can disregard. These are
they who, pressed down by the hard
necessities of the struggle for exist
ence, bless the kindergarten as the
agency that is bringing brightness and
tenderness and joy and the vision of
better ha
little ones. Less momentous even than
It's influence upon quickness of percep-
ton and mental activity is its func-
ton in developing the moral nature.
That which all our school systems
neglect too much, that without which
education" is a meaningless term, that
In whose absence a course Of study
may but make the boy an apter rogue
or the girl an easier victim to the
wickedness Of the world-moral disci-
pline and moral training-is the espe-
cial prerogative of the kindergarten
work. Our children are better behaved
They have learned to love order. They
have been taught Obedience. They have
found out for themselves the beauty of
nature and an ordered universe, when
the human soul is brought into har-
mony with it. These are among the
glad and solemn and simple testtmoni-
ais that the parents of the children
offer to the agency that is doing more
for human character and for the well
fare of the fIItllre state todav IN on.
public schools than all else that they
contain.
Are not these the real schools Of the
people? Dare any one aim blow at
that which carries the greatest good