The record-union., 1897-02-13

little people, what could be greater tor
ture to them than the necessity of
keeping still?"
The kindergarten aims to unite the
freedom of home with the conscious
concentration of school. The time has
come when the little one must step out
into the world. The kindergarten
takes his little hand from the clinging
hand of his mother and leads him on
into q larger family, where he feels
himself as part of one part union and
gains the powerful education infiu-
ence of companionship with his equals.
The kindergarten remembers that these
little people have been mothers babies
all their lives, and that their entrance
into the work-a-day world must not be
too sudden, but be made gradually
along with their own natural pathway
that of play.
Would some practical Gradgrind re-
mark that: This is all nonsense; If
child is old enough to leave his mother
he is old enough to leave his play also
All, ye toiler mid hard, cold facts, We
know that we may never grow too old
or too hardened in life's battles to loose
our love for play, and does not man
cling to his ball as plaything through
out his life?
What is play, after all, but the surest
pathway to real work? Some one has
said: AS work is higher than toll, so
is play higher than work. The toiler is
slave, the worker a freeman, and the
man who plays an artist" What are
the arduous labors of one who is in love
with his profession but play? Though
he be physician, artist scientist,
teacher, does he not pursue his work
for pleasure? And does he not prove for
Ruskin that a mans pleasure does
grow out of his work as the colored
blossom crowns the fiower?"
Again does Froebel's philosophy
agree with that of previous philoso-
piers when he makes play one of his
greatest agents in education and finds
the connection between outward activ-
ity and inward unfoldment. The kim
dergarten meets the child upon his own
plane; it gives him to do that which
he loves to do, and as he plays sponta-
neously he grows physically, mentally
and morally, and his play becomes
serious work, but it is his pleasure.
Here he is given ample scope for the
activity with which his young life is
surcharged; for that creative activity
which is but the divine inheritance
from the Supreme Creator, in whose
image he has been formed.
Here he is given living experience and
learns to do through doing" learns
to live through living" while he works
out with his hands and in his plays the
life of the world around. Through
this activity comes the joy of under
standing and the possession of knoWl-
edge, and through this experience is
there being formed the ideal which by
and by will be worked out, will be
actualized in his own character. Per-
haps the best definition for the kinder
garten is just what it's name implies:
A child garden. a place where the little
human plant grows in good soil,
heabthful atmosphere, and under the
care of d wise gardener; where he is
surrounded by warmth, love, life, sun
shine. beauty.
Here in this garden home the child is
to gain his own knowledge; and as in
the development of the human race,
with which the development of the
symbols; SO must he have objects and
experience before he can have thoughts.
Remembering this, the kindergarten
brings him in contact with plants and
animals, places him in close communion
with nature in all her varied phases,
and supplements this with talks, songs,
games and stories, all of which are in
close touch" with each other, and so
related and correlated that the child 8
impressions are continuous; not simply
impressions of isolated facts. That he
may give expression to the impressions
received, he is supplied with album
dant material With which to make
known his own little thought, for this
doing is his own natural utterance, his
primitive language.
Thus in a busy. active community,
surrounded by a general sense Of we'll
being and happiness, does the child
grow and develop in body, mind and
soul. The kindergarten is a place
where pleasure and duty alternate with
each other 1t is a place where the
rights of individual and community are
respected, 1t is not a place where
children play only. 1t is a place where
constant right-doing is crystallized in
to habit. And it is a place where the
formation of character through all
riched growth is its goal.
4 child who has received the true
kindergarten training has, having eyes,
learned TO see; having ears, learned to
hear; having hands, learned to use
them. He has acquired the powers Of
observation, attention and concentra-
ton. He has learned obedience. He
has learned somewhat of self-control.
His imagination is at work and his
memory is active He has gained con-
cepts Of color, form, number; in fact,
he has an unusual stock Of related in
formation which is to be the basis of
his future knowledge. He has learned
how to learn. He has gained the wish
to learn. He has acquired the power
Of obtaining his own knowledge. He
has learned TO think. He has the abil-
ity TO express himself. and best of all
he has learned to work and to enjoy
his work. He has formed the habit Of
working which he is to put into prac-
tice soon on his reading and writing.
Finally he has gained power and has
been put into possession Of his full
force OF faculties, and they are awake
and eager to be fed.
With this equipment he comes to the
next step in his journey for education
primary school. Is not this the very
best possible preparation the child
could have for subsequent school work ?
\ training that may never be cast
aside or outgrown. No thinking man
or woman but will heartily indorse this
preparation for school work, and for
which Is to join onto the foundation,
has been broad and deep; If the future
structure is To be reared in strength