The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-13
EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
HAMILTON ". MABIE ON THE IN FLUENOE OF THE KINDERGARTEN.

gational club of New Haven was held at the Grand avenue Congregational church last evening. Supper was serv- ed by the ladies of the church at 6:30 o'clock. Those who had charge of serv- ing the supper were as follows:
 General committee, Mrs. J. Lee Nit chen, Mrs. r. w. Prescott, Mrs. Henry Stevens, Mrs. L. L. Bradley, Mrs. F. H. Baldwin.
 The waitresses were: Mrs. George Kelly, Mrs. Walter Graham, Mrs. w. s. Bishop, Mrs. w. S. Dunning, Mrs. Charles H. Hubbard, Mrs. F. H. Bald Rentz, Miss Hattie Denison, Miss Hat tie Jefferson, Miss Minnie Goodsell, Mrs James Hull, Mrs. J. F. Blinn, Mrs c. R. Adams, the Misses Jennie, Lucy and Mary Griswold, Mrs. Connors, Miss Edith Groot, Miss Mary Blakeslee, Mrs. John Hewitt, Mrs. D. D. Smith, Mrs, Wallace Hurlburt, Miss Gertrude Brad ley, Miss Minerva Mallory, Mrs. E. E. Curtiss, Mrs. Meek
 The ladies were assisted by the fol- lowing named gentlemen: Fred Gut brod, c. H. Upson, Herbert Clark, Irv- ing Hurlburt, J. N. Blinn L. l., Brad ley, Wallace Hurlbut.
 The tables were handsomely decorat- ed and presented an attractive appear ance.
 During the supper organ selections were rendered by Harry Woodstock. Afterward the company assembled in the auditorium of the church. In the absence of the president, Rev. MT. Luckey, who is in the south, the vice president, Rev. c. N. Clark of Whit neville, presided.
 After the prayer by Rev. MT. Dick erman, Charles H. Mann, precentor at United church. rendered a solo. Rev. D. J. Clark of East Haven was propos- ed for membership by F. B. Street. The following were elected members of the club.
 Rev. Samuel Martyr, Derby; Solomon Davis, First Congregational, E. Somer- vile; Rev. S. F. Pangburn, Mt. Carmel; Frederick Lynch, United church.
 
 entitled "The Mission of the Rose," and then the speaker of the evening, Hamil- ton w. Mabie of the Outlook" was in troduced His topic was: Some Claims of the Kindergarten for Popular Support" MT Mabie in the course of his address said:
 q supposed when I came here I was to speak at dinner table, and I am somewhat surprised that am to speak behind pulpit and to so large a con- gregation. But I suppose here in New England it is not a surprising thing to be suddenly transferred from the dinner table to the pulpit.
 Our Kindergarten to-day is a great educational movement, enlisting the sympathies and enthusiasm of the peo- pie, and Elizabeth Peabody was the ment, and in 1870 the first of these schools was opened in this country There are over one hundred and fifty kindergartens now in Philadelphia, forty in Chicago, and they are spread out all over the country. Althought speak ing in a university town, I will say that there Is nothing we need in this country more than the just understand ing of the necessity of popular educa- tion
 q wish that the facts concerning the education of Germany could be known by all. The Germans are the best train ed people in the world. Everybody knows that the German life was very simple. Seventy-seven years ago be- gan that terrible struggle between France and Germany-a contest so ter rible that it has since deterred the na- | tions of Europe from engaging in war | and resulted in forming the European | concert which is really no concert at 1 all. On the part of Germany the great est science was used in the prepara- ton.
 | ''But the Germans were not good bus mess men. Now, however, England is feeling the keen competition of the Ger man manufacturer. Germany that was first iii philosophy and then in war is l tending to her advantage in the com mercial world. The best trained brains of Germany are being used in business habits to-day.
 Our supremacy in the future is to be determined by our education.
 ''The educational impress of the fam fly is the supreme influence. We have not yet begun to realize the impor- tance of home training. The kinder garten carries on beyond the home this J training. A real kindergarten, I have come to believe, Is about the finest ob- ject one can look upon. The kindergar- l ten has all the sweetness and the affec-
 tion of the home, while it begins the l educational process. Play is in itself l educational.
 l "All life is educational. The true | idea of the education of children is
 based on a knowledge of what little | children are. The child itself is one | great strife for knowledge. The funda- mental knowledge we learn is secured
 before We are six years of age. A child l is Columbus, all the while endeavor- { ing to know about new worlds. 1 ''The race had a childhood once and in that childhood it told stories to it. self. In those stories you will find the 1 germs of many future ideas. The child ! before it is six years of age knows
 twenty times more than it can express. Childhood itself is one great oppor- tunity. The play of children is the ex-