The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-07-13
Miss Allen TELLS Of Her Plans
For Kindergarten Work.
INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT
Function of the Word-Form alton
of Inag es-VOiCe CuIture-The
Child and Nature.

The work of the second days ses-
sion of the Summer school began yes
/ terday at s O'Clock in Progress hall
with talk on kindergarten teaching
+ by Miss Allen. The early hour, for
Hawaii, did not prevent good sized
J audience from assembling. The kind
/ ergarteners and many other teachers
were there, and the public was well
! represented. Miss Aliens talk was
chiefly a mapping out of work and
/ topics for discussion during the SEES
sion. Her enthusiasm for her work is
/ contagious. She inspires her hearers
with her earnestness, her love for
! children. During the sessions she will
! tell teachers of what value music is
! in the kindergarten and in the school
/ She says that this feature is a much
/ neglected one, although it plays an i'm
/ portant part in the school room Dis
! cipline is necessary. Because the par
! ent and the teacher loved the child
! sincerely, it should not be thought that
/ petting and fOndling should alone be
/ INDUCED in. Often her love went out
! the most to the child who needed the
| most discipline She often found her
| self excusing that child because she
/ knew that its conduct was due to
/ considerable degree to environment.
Miss Allen wishes especially to be
| come acquainted with the mothers, to
talk with them of the child's habit Of
thought, of what the mental food in
the home should consist She wished
to talk with them of the nature Of the
playthings in the home, and of temper
ance for little children, temperance in
speech, in food, in drink. She wishes
it announced that she will meet the
mothers at $3.50 o'clock this morning.
Miss Allen then had a three quarter
hour session OF kindergarten with
about a dozen children on the stage,
as a practical illustration Of the prin-
ciples which she expounds.
At 9:35 o'clock Col Parker gave
his first lecture of the morning He
spoke a second time at 1925, follow
ing Mrs Parker At the first lecture
Col Parker said that the true teacher
is an artist, who is studying every
question of education, who is cOncen-
trating his attention on the children
before him, studying and thinking. He
presented several working hypOtheses.
The first of these was the one function
of the word it's use. The word re-
calls something into consciousness. All
learning to read consists in the func-
tiOning of words, reading presents i'm
agery. AS an illustration he wrote
several German words on the black
board The majority of the audience
did not understand them. They
brought up only the image of the word
itself. He gave their meaning and the
words recalled the image Of the objects
which he named.
Imagery, said Col. Parker, is the sub
stantial flow of conscience. When
there are two images in the conscience
simultaneously or in immediate sue
cessiOn, thereafter one of them may,
and usually does, recall the other.
This is a fundamental law of recOIlec-
ton or memory. All words are learned
under one law only; the image of the
word and the appropriate image Of the
object. The meaning of the word is
the image it recalls. He applied this
principle to characters, the Chinese
characters, for instance If no image
was recalled it was almost a crime to
teach the words Children often learn
a word by once hearing it. The strong
er the image is in the mind, the quick
er the word is learned. The size OF
the word makes no difference A child
Will learn a large word as quickly as
small one.
The interest of learning to read, he
said, comes after the formation of i'm
ages by oral words. Observation means
a continued act upon the conscience to
produce images. The strong images |
always come from observation. it is the |
foundation of learning to read and the
child should never begin to read until |
he is thoroughly prepared. Speech |
should first be taught
Environment determines the lima ge |
flow. The teacher should begin with |
the environment OF the child. Every |
child has a natural flow Of strong i'm |
agery, it is the imagery primarily of |
the ground in the immediate vicinity |
and the child can see creation right at |
hand without knowing much about |
philosophy or reasoning about it. When |
the mind is full of imagery words come |
naturally. Every object he sees in |
nature is infinite in its possibilities. |
The child has a deep love of nature !
and all nature lives for the child. The |
teacher must understand the working |
of the child's mind.
Col. Parker said the Islands present |
ed greater object lessons than the |
United States. Here there is the pro- |
cess of crea alton in the volcano, the |
formation Of soil and minerals.
Mrs. Parker spoke VI the modes of |
expression. The voice, she said, was |
used most of all through life, yet the |
voice was the most neglected The
body was most complicated machine.
\ person with a sewing machine would
take great care of it, that it might per
form its duty we'll. Yet many persons
went through life with body unadjust-
ed. although it is the means by which
one soul communicated with another
soul, the means by which the knOwI-
edge Of every beautiful thing was
transmitted She said n vOioo c10T77